Page 239 of Fractured Allegiance
“Two down,” he calls, voice steady despite the smoke curling in the air.
“Plenty more to go!” Elias barks back.
The rafters groan as boots slam against them, shadows shifting. They’re moving overhead, trying to flank. I press against Silas’s side, my pulse thundering in my ears, my fingers digging into his jacket without permission. His head turns just enough to catch me, eyes like forged steel.
“You with me, baby?”
“Yes.” My voice doesn’t shake, though my body feels like it should.
He nods once, like that’s all he needs. Then he pushes up, grabbing my wrist, dragging me to the stack of crates where Elias and his men are dug in. Bullets chew into the floor where we were seconds before. My lungs burn, my throat raw from the dust, but I don’t let go of his grip.
We crash down beside Elias. The crates rattle with every shot. Ren’s face is pale, his hands fumbling with a reload. Jax snarls at him, yanking the gun from his hands to slam the magazine in himself.
“Pathetic,” Silas mutters, then raises his voice. “Elias, they’re fucking herding us.”
Elias spits into the dust, firing another round into the rafters. “I know.”
“What’s the play?”
His eyes cut to me. Then to Silas. Then back to the rafters. “We break their angle before they box us in. Ward, you take the left catwalk. Lydia, stay with me.”
I stiffen. “I’m not sitting back while—”
Silas grabs my chin, forcing my eyes to his. The gunfire doesn’t soften, but the world narrows until it’s just us. “You move with Elias. You keep breathing. That’s the only order I’ll ever give you.”
It’s not a plea. It’s a command laced with obsession, carved deep into every word.
I want to fight him. I want to spit that I’ve bled my own share already. But the grip on my jaw, the fire in his eyes, they pull me under.
“Fine,” I whisper.
He releases me, his thumb dragging across my skin once before he’s gone, rolling into the smoke and chaos like the shadows belong to him.
Gunfire follows.
And the silence he leaves behind tastes like dread.
With his absence, everything feels wrong. Like he took the oxygen with him, and left me to choke on gunpowder and fear.
Elias grips my arm, jerks me down as a spray of bullets shreds the top of the crates. Splinters rain into my hair. My ears ring so hard I can’t tell which shots are ours and which are theirs.
“Eyes forward,” Elias barks, snapping another round into the shadows above. His tone is calm, cold, the kind of voice that doesn’t allow disobedience. I stay low, but my eyes keep darting to the catwalk where Silas vanished.
Every second feels longer than the last.
“Why split?” I hiss. “Why not push as one?”
Elias doesn’t look at me, just reloads with smooth, practiced hands. “Because he fights better when he’s not protecting you at the same time.”
The words sting.
“He’s not—”
“He is,” Elias cuts me off, his shot cracking the air. Another scream drops from the rafters, another body falling. He doesn’t blink. “You don’t see it, do you? The way he watches you even when he shouldn’t. Obsession’s a leash, Lydia. Men like him choke on it.”
I bite back my reply, my chest too tight.
Across the room, Ren fumbles with his gun again. He drops the magazine, scrambles for it, his curses breaking in panic. Jax slams a fist against his chest. “Pull it together, or I’ll gut you myself!”
