Gunfire cracked through the air like lightning.
Ava ducked instinctively, Damien's arm already wrapped around her, pulling her behind the concrete support pillar with practiced force. The echo of bullets tore through crates and metal shelves, shattering the illusion that this was ever meant to be just a meeting.
Lucien's voice buzzed in their earpieces.
"Hostiles confirmed. Not Miranda's men. They're professionals. Contracted. Get out of there. Now."
"Who the hell hired mercs?" Damien growled, shielding Ava with his body as another barrage of gunfire sliced past them.
"I did," Helena called out, stepping back with her glass still in hand, unbothered. "Just in case you got too confident."
"You're insane!" Ava shouted.
"No," Helena said coolly, her voice echoing. "I'm practical. And you, Ava, are a liability. You always were."
Damien reached behind him, pulled a compact firearm from the back of his waistband, and checked the chamber. "Stay behind me."
Ava's voice was steady despite the chaos. "We're not running."
"You will if I say so."
She caught his wrist. "We finish this."
For a split second, their eyes locked.
And he nodded.
---
Outside the warehouse, Lucien and his team were already closing in. Silencers clicked into place, footfalls padded across the gravel as operatives flanked the entrances. In Lucien's hand was a tablet displaying the real-time heat map.
He watched as multiple red dots converged near the rear of the building.
"They're closing in on Ava and Damien," he muttered. "Send in Alpha unit. Secure the exits."
---
Inside, Ava and Damien moved like one.
They flanked left, weaving between crates. Damien raised his weapon and took a calculated shot — one of the mercs collapsed with a groan, disarmed before he could react. Ava grabbed a crowbar from a nearby shelf, crouched low, and swung it into the knee of a second attacker who had slipped past Damien's line of sight.
The man howled, crumpling, and Ava didn't wait. She drove the crowbar against his temple with brutal precision.
Blood splattered her cheek.
She didn't even blink.
---
"You've changed," Helena called mockingly, watching from the catwalk above. "Daddy would be so disappointed."
Ava's breath heaved as she looked up. "He'd be proud. I'm cleaning the filth he didn't know was rotting us from within."
"Touching," Helena spat. "But pointless. You'll still lose. You're a Sinclair. You were born to fall."
Damien fired at the railing near Helena's feet. Sparks flew.
"Come down here and say that again," he snarled.
But Helena was already retreating, ducking through a steel door behind the catwalk. Lucien's voice crackled again.
"We have eyes on her. She's heading toward the river access tunnel. We'll intercept."
Damien grabbed Ava's hand. "Let's move."
---
They chased her.
Down stairwells. Through rusted corridors that reeked of damp rot and betrayal. Ava's lungs burned, her mind flashing with images of her father. His final days. His silence. The unanswered questions.
And now , the answers were running.
They burst into the underground tunnel, barely lit, water pooling at their feet. Helena stood at the far end with two men shielding her. One of them held a small flash drive.
"The ledger," Damien breathed. "She still has it."
Helena smiled. "Come any closer, and I drop it in the water."
Ava stepped forward. "You've already lost. The copies, the evidence, the server logs — it's over."
"Is it?" Helena's voice sharpened. "Do you really think this ends with me?"
Something in her tone shifted. A glint of real fear flickered in her eyes.
"There's someone else," Ava whispered.
Helena didn't respond.
But her silence screamed the truth.
Damien caught Ava's arm. "This wasn't her idea."
"She's just the front," Ava murmured. "Someone higher. Someone who—"
Suddenly, a shot rang out from the shadows.
Helena staggered, eyes wide with shock. Blood bloomed across her chest.
The flash drive slipped from her fingers.
Her guards turned, stunned. But before they could react, more shots echoed.
Clean hits. One to the head. One to the heart. Both men dropped.
Lucien and his team appeared at the far entrance, weapons drawn, moving with brutal precision.
Damien caught Ava as she stepped forward. "Stay back."
Helena gasped, blood trickling from her lips as she slumped to the ground. Her eyes locked with Ava one final time.
"You… you were never supposed… to survive this…"
Ava crouched beside her. "Who was it, Helena? Who pulled the strings?"
But Helena just laughed, weakly. "Check your father's last call… It wasn't to you."
Then she went still.
---
An hour later, the tunnel was flooded with authorities and cyber-forensics. The drive was recovered. Clean. Untampered.
The data inside?
Explosive.
Detailed ledgers of payouts, manipulated trials, falsified reports, and a list of names . Executives, judges, investors. Even politicians. And at the very top…
A single codename: D. Wolfe.
Ava stared at the screen in the safehouse, knuckles white.
Damien froze behind her.
"I know that name," he whispered.
Ava turned. "Who is it?"
Damien's voice was grim.
"He was my father's silent partner. And the man who disappeared right before the Blackwood collapse."
Ava's pulse quickened. "He destroyed both our families."
Damien's eyes met hers. "Then we finish what they started."
---
Later that night, Ava stood on the hotel balcony, wrapped in Damien's shirt. The wind tangled in her hair. The weight of what had just happened pressed against her chest like a vice.
But when Damien stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she let herself lean into him.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, lips against her shoulder. "For everything. For doubting you. For using you. For not seeing you."
Ava turned to face him. "You see me now."
He nodded, fingers tracing her jaw. "And I never want to stop."
They stood in silence, Berlin glittering around them. Ava's hand slid into his.
And for the first time, the war felt like it had meaning.