Mira's POV
I scream.
The sound rips from my throat before I can stop it. "KIERAN! I'M HERE!"
Vincent's knife slices my neck—not deep, but enough that blood runs hot down my skin. "You stupid girl!"
The door explodes inward. Kieran crashes through like a storm, gun raised, eyes wild. He sees me bleeding and something terrifying crosses his face.
"Let her go." His voice is death itself. "Now."
Vincent yanks me up, using me as a shield. The knife stays pressed to my throat. "One step closer and I cut deeper."
"You cut her and you die." Kieran's gun never wavers. "There's no version of this where you walk away if she's hurt."
"Then we have a problem." Vincent starts backing toward a door I didn't notice before. "Because I'm leaving with my daughter, and you're not going to stop me."
"Mira." Kieran's eyes find mine. "Close your eyes."
"What? No—"
"Trust me. Close them. Now."
I squeeze my eyes shut.
Three things happen at once: A flashbang grenade explodes, blinding even through my eyelids. Vincent's grip loosens as he stumbles. And Kieran moves faster than should be possible.
When I open my eyes, Vincent is on the ground, unconscious. Kieran is cutting my ropes with shaking hands, his face so pale I think he might pass out.
"You're bleeding. God, you're bleeding." He touches my neck so gently, checking the wound. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't faster—"
"I'm okay." My voice wobbles. "It's just a scratch. Where's Sophie?"
"My team has her. She's safe." Kieran pulls me to my feet, but my legs won't work. I collapse against him, and he catches me like I weigh nothing. "I've got you. You're safe now."
Police sirens wail outside. Kieran's security team swarms in, zip-tying Vincent and his men. Someone wraps a blanket around my shoulders. Someone else checks my neck wound, declaring it superficial.
But I can't stop shaking.
"Marcus," I manage to say. "Vincent locked him in the basement. He's—"
"We found him." Kieran's jaw tightens. "He's alive. Talking to police now, telling them everything. The money, the information he sold, all of it."
"Good." My teeth chatter despite the blanket. "He deserves prison."
"He deserves worse." Kieran looks down at me, and his expression cracks. "Mira, when I heard you scream, when I saw that blood... I thought I'd failed again. Thought I'd lost you like I lost your mother."
"You saved me."
"Barely. If you hadn't screamed—" He stops himself, breathing hard. "Why did you scream? Vincent threatened Sophie if you made a sound."
I realize he's right. Vincent said he'd kill Sophie if I called for help. "Is she really safe? You're not lying to make me feel better?"
"She's in an ambulance right now. Bruised and scared but alive. My brother James is with her."
Relief hits so hard I nearly fall again. "Then it doesn't matter why I screamed. I chose. And we all survived."
Kieran looks at me like I'm something precious and impossible. "You chose me. Even knowing Sophie might die, you chose to trust I could save both of you."
"Stupid, right?"
"Brave." He touches my face, careful of my injuries. "So incredibly brave."
The police want statements. FBI agents arrive, including a serious woman named Detective Chen who seems to know everything about Vincent and my mother. The warehouse becomes chaos—people asking questions, taking photos, documenting evidence.
Through it all, Kieran never leaves my side. When I stumble, he steadies me. When I can't answer another question, he tells them to back off. When I finally break down crying, he just holds me and lets me soak his shirt with tears and blood and snot.
Hours later, they let us leave. Sophie is at the hospital for observation. Marcus is in police custody. Vincent and his men are facing dozens of charges. Adrian disappeared in the chaos—no one knows where he went.
Kieran drives me back to the bookstore as dawn breaks over Riverside. The streets are empty and quiet, nothing like the nightmare we just escaped.
"I can't go back there," I say suddenly. "To my apartment. Knowing Vincent's people were inside, touching my things, planning—" My breath hitches. "I can't."
"Then you won't." Kieran doesn't hesitate. "You'll stay with me. As long as you need."
"In your stalker penthouse?" Despite everything, I almost laugh. "The place where you watched me for months?"
"I know how it sounds. But Mira, it's the safest place in the city. Security cameras, reinforced doors, my team on call 24/7." He glances at me. "And I'll sleep on the couch. Or at a hotel. Whatever makes you comfortable."
We pull up to the bookstore. The front window is still broken from where Vincent's men smashed through. Police tape crosses the door. My sanctuary, violated.
"I need to grab some clothes," I say quietly. "Personal things. Then... yes. I'll stay with you."
Kieran walks me up to my apartment, checking every room before letting me enter. Everything looks normal, but it feels tainted now. Someone stood here, watching me sleep. Planning to hurt me.
I grab a bag and start throwing in clothes randomly. Kieran stands in the doorway, giving me space but staying alert.
"Why did you really write the notes?" The question tumbles out. "You said it was because I'm scared of being seen. But that's not the whole truth, is it?"
Kieran is quiet for a long moment. "Do you remember the first note? In Jane Eyre?"
I nod, closing my eyes to recall the words. "'You're not invisible, Mira. Not to me.'"
"I wrote that because three months ago, I watched you cry in the bookstore after closing. You were talking to the books, telling them nobody saw you anymore. That Marcus made you feel invisible." His voice goes rough. "And I wanted you to know someone did see you. Every beautiful, broken, brave part of you."
"So you wrote me love letters hidden in books."
"I wrote you truth." He steps into the room, closer. "I could have approached you directly. Introduced myself as a businessman interested in security for your building. Made up some normal reason to talk to you. But that would have been a lie, Mira. And I'd already lied by watching you for eight years."
"So instead you told me you were watching me? That's your idea of honesty?"
"Yes." No hesitation. "I wanted you to find me. To choose to seek me out. Because if you came to me, it meant you wanted to be seen as badly as I wanted to see you."
I sit on my bed, exhausted beyond words. "This is insane. Everything about this is insane."
"I know."
"You stalked me. Broke a thousand laws. Invaded my privacy in ways I'm still discovering."
"I know."
"And somehow, I don't hate you." The words surprise me as much as him. "I should. But when I thought Vincent was going to kill you, when I heard gunshots and didn't know if you were alive... I was terrified."
Kieran crosses the room and kneels in front of me, looking up with those intense blue eyes. "I'm not going to apologize for protecting you. For watching over you. For writing notes that made you feel less alone. But I will apologize for not trusting you with the truth sooner."
"What truth?"
"That I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you. You were nineteen, sitting in a library reading Pride and Prejudice and crying at the happy ending. I was assigned to protect you and your mother, and one look at you made me understand why men burn the world down for the women they love."
My heart hammers. "That's... intense."
"That's me." He touches my hand carefully, like I might break. "I don't do anything halfway, Mira. Especially not love. So if you want me gone after tonight, say it now. Because if I stay, if you let me keep protecting you, keeping caring about you... I'm never leaving."
I should say yes. Should tell him to go, get therapy, learn to be normal.
But nothing about my life is normal anymore.
"Stay," I whisper. "Tonight. Tomorrow. Until I figure out what I want."
Relief floods his face. "I'll take it."
We go back downstairs together. Kieran insists on checking the whole bookstore one more time, making sure no one's hiding in the shadows. While he's searching, I notice something on the front counter.
A book I've never seen before. New, with a ribbon bookmark.
My hands shake as I open it.
There's a note inside. Fresh ink. Written in the last few hours.
"Congratulations on surviving, little sister. Vincent is caught, but his empire remains. Someone has to run it now. Someone smart. Someone who understands revenge. See you soon. -Adrian"
"Kieran?" My voice is tiny. "We have a problem."
He reads the note, his face going hard as stone.
"Adrian was here. In the bookstore. While we were at the warehouse." Kieran pulls out his phone, already calling his team. "He left this during the rescue. Which means—"
"He's not done with me." I finish the sentence. "Vincent's in jail, but his son is still out there."
And suddenly, I realize we didn't win tonight.
We just survived the first round.