He huffed a quiet breath.“Because it means we don’t become the thing we hunt.”
That landed deep.
“And Daniel Kovac,” she said, testing the name again.“If it’s him ...that could end this.The pressure.The threat.”
“It would cut a major artery,” Luca agreed.“It wouldn’t kill the beast, but it would make it bleed.”
She nodded, heart picking up.“Which means—”
“—we might finally get some space,” he finished.“You and me.Without the Covenant always watching for fallout.”
Mara smiled faintly.“That sounds dangerously close to hope.”
His lips curved.“Don’t tell anyone.”
She was about to say something else when she noticed it—the subtle change.The way his shoulders tightened.The speedometer creeping higher than before.
“Luca,” she said.“You’re driving faster.”
He didn’t look at her.Instead, his thumb flicked a concealed switch on the dash.
A soft tone chimed once.
“We’re being followed,” he said calmly.“Two vehicles back.Rotated plates.”
Mara’s pulse spiked.“You’re sure?”
“I’m always sure.”He pressed another button.“I’ve signaled the team.They’re on their way.”
The road opened ahead of them—long, sweeping lanes, fewer intersections, the kind of stretch Luca had clearly chosen on purpose.Visibility.Space.Options.He accelerated smoothly, not panicked, not erratic, engine note deepening as the car surged forward.Controlled.Deliberate.Like everything he did when it mattered.
Mara felt the change in her body before she fully understood what was happening.Her muscles tightened, breath going shallow, senses sharpening.Fear rose sharp and cold, slicing straight through her chest—but beneath it was something steadier.Trust.Absolute and unshakeable.The way Luca took a corner at speed without jerking the wheel.The way his eyes never stopped moving, mirrors to road to horizon, mapping threats she couldn’t see.
She was scared.
She was also safe.
Until she wasn’t.
The SUV came out of nowhere.
There was no warning screech, no time to brace.One second they were clearing the intersection, Luca already angling for the next lane, the next the world detonated sideways.Metal screamed as the impact slammed into her door, the force ripping the breath from her lungs in a brutal punch.The car lifted, weightless and wrong, the ground vanishing beneath them before gravity reclaimed its due and hurled them back down.
Her head snapped sideways, vision blurring as the air left her chest in a raw, soundless gasp.
Before she could orient—before her brain could catch up to what her body already knew—a second impact hit.Harder.Directly into the driver’s side.The sound was catastrophic, steel folding like paper, the entire frame shuddering as they spun.
Everything became motion.
Noise swallowed her—glass fracturing, metal tearing, the deep, concussive boom of impact layered over her own heartbeat roaring in her ears.The seatbelt bit viciously into her shoulder and ribs.Her world tilted, flipped, spun again.Her scream stayed locked in her chest, trapped behind shock and pain.
Then—
Silence.
The car came to rest at a sickening angle, nose buried into the scrub of a low hillside but mercifully right side up.Dirt and leaves scraped along the hood.The engine hissed and sputtered before dying completely.Dust floated through the cabin, hanging in the air like ash after a fire.
“L—Luca?”Luca didn’t answer.
