The docks reeked of salt, rust, and betrayal.
It was the kind of place where bodies disappeared and the sea forgot to spit them back.
I had my gun cocked.
Niko drove like the city owed him blood.
Sienna sat in the backseat, caged by my stare, caught between her lies and my obsession.
"You lied about everything," I growled.
"I lied to keep you alive."
I slammed my fist into the dashboard.
"I don't need you to save me. I need you to be honest with me."
Her breath staggered, but her fire didn't die.
"Do you think I wanted to fall for you? I was sent to destroy you."
"And yet here you are," I snapped, my voice raw steel. "Still carrying my name in your throat."
The car screeched to a stop.
South docks. Cargo ship in sight.
Kairos's men scattered like roaches.
"You stay here," I ordered, racking my gun.
"No." She threw open the door. "I'm not leaving you."
I grabbed her arm, yanking her into me.
"You don't get to choose now. You're mine when I say you're mine."
Her pulse hammered under my grip, but her lips curled in that wicked smirk.
"Then take me with you."
"Try not to get me killed."
I shoved a second gun into her hand and charged into the storm.
Bullets flew. Men fell.
I cut through them like the devil collecting debts.
Sienna moved like she belonged on the battlefield—covering me, breathing with me, sinking into my shadow like she'd always fit there.
We hit the cargo hold.
I yanked the steel door open.
And there he was.
The kid.
Terrified. Alone.
A wire was strapped to his chest. A detonator is blinking red.
"It's a bomb," Niko cursed, gun raised.
I turned to Sienna, my jaw locked tight.
"You knew this was a trap."
Tears rimmed her eyes but she didn't back down.
"I thought I could stop him. I thought—"
"You thought wrong."
My heart beat like a war drum, but I didn't freeze.
I never freeze.
I stepped into the hold, hands raised.
Kairos's voice crackled through the speaker system.
"Silas Mavros. Ready to rewrite the game?"
I scanned the walls. Triggers. Motion sensors.
It was a chessboard rigged to kill me no matter where I stepped.
"You've always chased what you can't have," Kairos hissed.
"You've broken every rule, fallen for the girl planted to gut you, and now you'll die saving a child who isn't even yours."
I smiled coldly.
"I don't chase what I can't have. I take it anyway."
"You're out of moves."
I knelt in front of the boy, my voice steady as I disarmed the first wire.
"You hear that, kid? He thinks I'm out of moves."
The kid trembled. "You can't stop the timer."
"I don't need to stop it." I cut another wire, sweat slick on my hands. "I just need to be faster than it."
Sienna's voice broke through the comm.
"Silas, there's a kill switch on the east wall. But if you trigger it, you'll be locked inside."
I looked at her—really looked at her.
And for the first time, I saw it.
She didn't want me to die.
She never did.
I grinned.
"You said you wanted to see how far I'd go to claim you."
Her breath hitched. "Don't you dare."
I winked.
"Watch me."
I triggered the kill switch. The exit slammed shut. The timer froze.
But now I was sealed inside.
Kairos's laugh boomed through the speakers.
"You'll die for her? For a war you can't win?"
I pressed my mouth to the kid's ear.
"You're gonna tell your father a story. About the man who didn't walk away."
I yanked the detonator from the kid's vest, shoved it into the steel trapdoor, and fired a round straight into it.
BOOM.
The blast ripped through the hold, fire licking at my back.
Silence.
I heard Sienna screaming my name through the comms.
But I was already gone. The blast tore through the docks, flames chewing metal, black smoke strangling the sky.
"Silas!"
Sienna's scream cracked through the comm.
Silence.
Just the hiss of fire and the taste of ash.
"No, no, no!" She pounded her fists against the sealed cargo door, her breath ragged, tears carving down her cheeks.
"You can't die. Not like this. Not because of me."
Niko grabbed her arm. "We need to move. Backup's closing in."
She jerked free, loading another clip, her voice wild with fury.
"I'm not leaving him."
"He's gone."
Her eyes snapped to him, blazing.
"You don't get to tell me when he's gone. I belong to him."
She spun, firing on Kairos's men as they swarmed the docks.
Her bullets landed brutally and precisely—every shot a war cry.
Niko cursed, covering her as they fought through the chaos.
"We'll find another way. Silas wouldn't want you dead."
"He wouldn't want me weak either."
She pushed forward, charging straight into enemy fire.
And then—
A gunshot cracked behind her.
A hand yanked her by the waist, dragging her into a steel shadow.
His hand.
His grip.
Silas.
Dust clung to his hair, blood streaked his jaw, his shirt was torn, but his eyes-those dark, merciless eyes—were still locked on her like she was his next breath.
"Miss me, sweetheart?" he rasped.
"You idiot." She slammed her fists against his chest. "I thought you were dead."
"Yeah?" He crushed her mouth with his, fierce and bruising. "I don't die easily. Especially when you still owe me that knife."
Her fingers tangled in his hair, her lips devouring his like she wanted to punish him and worship him in the same breath.
But the moment was shattered as Niko's voice snapped through the comm.
"Boss, Kairos is on the move. He's taking the kid. Docks, east exit. Black convoy."
Silas pulled back, his smirk dripping with danger.
"Stay here."
Sienna's nails bit into his jacket.
"No. I'm not staying behind. I'm done watching you bleed for me."
"You don't get to choose."
Her voice cracked, desperate and raw.
"I choose you."
That hit him harder than a bullet.
He shoved a gun into her palm.
"Then you chase me."
The convoy peeled out—tires screaming, bullets flying.
Silas sprinted after them, Sienna on his heels, their footsteps pounding in sync, their hearts a reckless war.
They hijacked a motorbike, weaving through traffic, gunfire singing past their ears.
Sienna clung to him, her lips at his neck, her gun hot against his ribs.
"You're insane," she whispered.
"Yeah?" His grin was pure sin. "You like me better this way."
They shot past trucks, slammed into the side of the black SUV, Silas leaping onto the roof as if the road was just another weapon he owned.
Kairos's men leaned out, guns raised.
Silas fired first—point-blank, no mercy.
The SUV swerved, slammed into a barricade, flipping in a twisted scream of metal.
Silas ripped the door open, dragging Kairos's soldier out by the throat.
"Where's the boy?"
The man spat blood. "You're too late."
Silas jammed his gun under the man's jaw.
"I don't do late. Where. Is. He."
The soldier gasped, caved. "Warehouse. Sector 9. Kairos is already there."
Silas dropped him without a word and turned to Sienna, his voice a sharp promise.
"We're not done."
Her pulse thudded against his chest.
"We're never done."
And as they roared toward the next battlefield, both of them knew—
Love wasn't the game anymore.
It was the war. The bike roared beneath us as the city blurred past like a dying heartbeat.
Sienna's grip tightened around my waist, her mouth pressed to my ear.
"You sure you want to survive this?"
I cut through a barricade like it didn't exist.
"Sweetheart, I don't survive. I own."
"You really think you can outrun Kairos on his own turf?"
I grinned as I swerved through traffic, gunning for Sector 9.
"Darling, I built my empire on other people's turf. And I burn the map when I'm done."
Her breath hitched.
She loved this.
The chaos. The fire. The fact that I was the storm no one survived.
When we hit the warehouse perimeter, I killed the engine and gripped her chin, locking her in place.
"You don't breathe unless I say."
"You don't blink unless I let you," she fired back.
God, she was perfect.
I kissed her like the war wasn't waiting. Like I wasn't seconds from killing everyone inside.
"Ready to rewrite the rules?" I whispered against her lips.
"Only if I get to break you after."
I shoved my gun in my holster and stalked toward the warehouse doors.
Niko's voice crackled in my earpiece.
"Boss, Kairos is stacked. Traps, snipers, proximity mines. This is suicide."
I smirked.
"Yeah? Then I guess I'll take him to hell with me."
Sienna moved beside me like she was born for this.
I kicked the doors in.
The room lit up—guns trained on me from every angle.
Kairos stood dead center, the boy shackled behind him, a gun pressed to his head.
"You're late, Silas," he drawled, a venomous grin on his face.
"I don't do late." I cocked my gun.
"I do unfinished business."
Kairos laughed, lazy and cruel.
"You think you can rewrite the ending? This isn't your story anymore."
I stepped forward, fearless.
"Everything's mine when I decide it is. The kid. The war. Hell, even your sister."
Kairos's smile froze.
His grip on the boy faltered just enough for me to see the crack in his armor.
"You know, don't you?" I taunted.
"That your sister didn't just fail to break me. She chose me."
Sienna's breath caught behind me, but she didn't flinch.
She was mine now. She'd been mine from the start.
"You think that's your win?" Kairos barked.
"She was always the trap."
"No," I snarled, stepping closer, gun never wavering.
"She was always the prize."
Suddenly, Kairos's men started dropping—one by one.
Silenced shots from above.
Niko's voice hissed in my ear.
"Got your back, boss. Clean exit in three."
Kairos dragged the boy toward a side exit, desperation bleeding into his voice.
"You'll never touch me, Silas. You'll never—"
Bang.
I shot him in the leg.
Watched him crumble.
"I don't need to touch you," I growled, storming toward him.
"I need to end you."
But just as I reached for the boy, Kairos twisted a hidden detonator.
The warehouse started ticking.
A bomb. Another trap.
"You can save the boy or you can save your empire," he spat, crawling toward the detonator's dead man switch.
"Pick, Silas. Pick."
I yanked Sienna behind me, gun to Kairos's head.
"I don't pick."
"You'll lose everything."
I smiled, cold as a blade.
"I'll just own what's left."
BOOM.
The explosion ripped through the floor as the platform under us collapsed.
Sienna's scream tore through the smoke.
I caught the boy in midair.
I caught her wrist with the other.
But I was hanging by a thread, gripping a shattered steel beam, the weight of both lives pulling me down.
Niko's voice exploded in my ear.
"Boss! Say the word! I can pull you out. But you can't hold them both. You have to let go of one!"
The beam cracked, metal groaning.
Sienna's eyes locked on mine, tears streaming.
"Save him. Save the boy."
"Shut up," I growled, my fingers burning, refusing to let her go.
"I told you—I don't pick."
"Silas—"
I bared my teeth, rage tearing through me.
"I don't lose."
The steel gave way.
I made my choice.
But whether I chose her or the boy?
Yeah, the story cuts right here.