Chapter 25
“When you stopped speaking to me,” he said, “I expected relief.”
“Did you get it?”
“No.”
Lightning whitened the room.
He looked tired in a way sleep could not fix.
“Every time you walked past me, I felt the absence before you were gone.”
I said nothing.
He deserved the difficulty of continuing.
“I pushed you away because caring about you changes the way I assess risk.”
“You keep saying that like love is a security breach.”
“For me, it can be.”
“And what am I supposed to do with that?”
His hands opened at his sides, empty.
“I don’t know. I only know I cannot ask you to leave and survive the result.”
The words settled between us.
My anger did not vanish.
Neither did my love.
Alexander stepped closer.
“Grace.”
His hand touched my cheek.
The estate went dark.
Every light vanished at once.
Alexander moved before I understood what had happened.
He pulled me behind him.
A muted alarm began somewhere below.
His phone lit his face.
Ethan’s voice came through immediately.
“Perimeter breach. Multiple armed hostiles. Backup generators were cut. South fence compromised.”
Alexander’s expression changed completely.
“Status?”
“Security teams engaging. Unknown objective.”
Alexander opened a hidden panel in the wall and entered a code.
A reinforced interior door released.
“Inside.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Grace.”
This time the order carried no ego. Only urgency.
He gripped my shoulders.
“You stay here until Ethan or I open this door. No one else. Do you understand?”
I heard movement in the corridor. Boots. Radios. Men speaking in clipped bursts.
“Alexander—”
His forehead touched mine for a fraction of a second.
“I am coming back.”
Then he pushed me gently into the secure room and locked the door between us.
The space was windowless, stocked with emergency supplies and a secure phone.
I sat on the floor because my knees would not hold me.
Outside, the estate I had once called a fortress became exactly that.
I finally understood what Alexander had been trying, badly, to tell me.
Loving him did not create danger.
But love gave danger a name.
