Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Elara and Kael spend two days preparing for the Thornwood operation while Tobias recovers enough to provide forged credentials and layout details. Elara researches Marcus Liddell's background, discovering he likely still works cleanup for the Collectors. Kael contacts Declan for reconnaissance on the estate. In a quiet moment alone, Elara processes the weight of finally being close to answers about Nina. The night before the operation, Elara and Kael share an intimate moment that deepens their bond before cutting away. The chapter ends with them departing for Thornwood as dawn breaks.
The next two days passed in a state of suspended urgency—not rushing, but not resting either. A held breath.
Tobias improved in increments. By the morning of the first day, he was sitting up on his own, color returning to his face in uneven patches like watercolor bleeding back into wet paper. Priya's medical contact—a stoic woman named Hadley who arrived with a portable ultrasound unit—confirmed the pneumothorax was small and stable, the ribs cracked but not displaced. Internal bleeding remained a concern, but the imaging showed no active hemorrhaging. He needed a hospital eventually. What he got instead was bed rest, analgesics, and the stubbornness of a man who refused to die before finishing what he'd started.
"You're not going anywhere," I told him when he tried to stand to use the bathroom unassisted.
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