Chapter 6: A Dangerous Alliance
The barn was old, nearly falling apart. But inside, the air buzzed with tension.
Aaron adjusted the Bluetooth earpiece in his ear as he set up the satellite uplink. Elara watched from the loft above, arms crossed, anxiety coiled tightly around her spine.
"They bought the bait," he said. "They've deployed two teams to Morocco."
Elara let out a slow breath. "Good. That buys us time."
"Not much," Aaron replied, tapping on the tablet. "Callan's not a fool. He'll figure it out."
Elara descended the ladder and stepped beside him. "Then we use this window wisely."
Aaron turned to her. "You said you knew someone who could help us?"
"I do." Her jaw tensed. "And I hate it."
He raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
She looked away, voice low. "My brother."
Aaron blinked. "The one who works for Roth Industries?"
"Not anymore," she said. "He left the company after… after our father died. We haven't spoken in a year. Not since I agreed to marry Callan."
Aaron's tone cooled. "So he didn't approve?"
"He called me a traitor," she said. "Said I was choosing money over blood."
Aaron exhaled. "And now?"
She looked up at him. "Now, he's the only one with access to the Roth family's encrypted financial backups. The kind that could unravel their entire offshore empire."
Three hours later, they met him at a private hangar just outside the city.
Dominic Hart. Late thirties. Sharp jawline, storm-gray eyes, and the same fierce stubbornness that ran through Elara's veins.
He stood beside a black SUV, arms folded.
"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here," he said.
"I wouldn't be here if it weren't life or death," Elara answered calmly.
"You've said that before. Right before you walked down the aisle with the devil."
Aaron stepped in. "She didn't come for a family reunion. She came for help."
Dominic eyed him. "And who are you?"
"Elara's son's father."
The silence hit hard.
Dominic's face twitched. "You mean to tell me... Leo is yours?"
Elara nodded.
Dominic dragged a hand through his hair, pacing once, twice. "You know the Roths will kill you both if they find out."
"They already know she ran," Aaron said. "They just don't know what she took with her."
Dominic looked between them, weighing risks and bloodlines and ghosts.
Then—"You're insane. Both of you."
"But are we right?" Elara asked softly.
He stared at her a moment longer, then unlocked the SUV and tossed Aaron a hard drive. "That's part of the backup system. You'll need a biometric scan to decrypt it. Good thing you brought me."
Elara blinked. "You're helping?"
Dominic shrugged. "You're still my sister. And I never liked Callan."
Back at the farmhouse, as the sun dipped low behind the hills, Aaron decrypted the first batch of files.
Offshore accounts. Illegal trades. Blood money.
Elara stood behind him, a hand pressed to her mouth. "He used my name to sign off on this."
Aaron looked up at her. "That makes you a target. And a witness."
She nodded. "Then it's time I started acting like one."
That night, Dominic sat at the kitchen table with Leo, helping him build a Lego spaceship.
"You know," he said casually, "your mom used to crash every model I ever built."
"She still crashes things," Leo said proudly. "Yesterday she hit a mailbox."
Dominic laughed, and something warm cracked through the icy silence between him and Elara.
From across the room, Aaron watched it unfold.
"You think we can actually bring the Roths down?" he asked quietly.
Elara's eyes stayed on her brother and son.
"I don't know," she whispered. "But for the first time… I believe we can try."