Mateo swore softly.“That’s harder to erase.”
“And harder to deny,” Eliza agreed.
Kol felt the shift then, subtle but undeniable.This wasn’t protection anymore.This was partnership.
“We find that proof,” Elias said.“Quietly.”
“And then?”Kol asked.
Elias’s voice was iron.“Then we decide how public this gets.”
The truck rolled on, engine steady, the world narrowing to asphalt and intent.
Kol glanced at Eliza again.“You okay?”
She nodded once.“I’m not running,” she said.“I’m done hiding.”
He believed her.
“Good,” he said.“Because neither am I.”
The call ended as the plan solidified—rendezvous set, roles defined, momentum building toward something that could not be undone.
The cab of the truck fell quiet again, filled only with road noise and wind.
Eliza frowned slightly, then glanced at Kol.“How can Dominic afford to just ...buy a mansion?”
Kol shot her a look—half warning, half amusement.
“We’re very well paid,” he said.“But let’s just say Dominic is also independently wealthy.”
Kol drove on, the war no longer at his door.
He was taking it to them.
****
Kansas City felt nothinglike Florida.
The air was heavier somehow, denser, carrying the weight of storms that hadn’t broken yet.The sky sat lower, clouds stacked thick and gray, pressing down on the sprawl of land and concrete.Eliza noticed it immediately—the way the horizon felt closer, the way sound didn’t travel as far.It made everything feel contained.
Manageable.
The house rose behind wrought-iron gates set well back from the road, the kind of place designed to be seen only by those meant to see it.Old money bones, Dominic had said.He hadn’t been exaggerating.The mansion was wide rather than tall, stone and brick layered in a way that suggested it had been expanded carefully over decades instead of built all at once.Mature trees lined the drive, their branches heavy and still, offering shade and concealment in equal measure.
Eliza stepped out of the vehicle and stood for a moment, simply taking it in.
This wasn’t hiding.
This was fortifying.
Inside, the house was cool and quiet, the air carrying the faint scent of lemon polish and something older—wood, maybe, or history.Floors gleamed underfoot.Light spilled in through tall windows dressed in heavy drapes that could be pulled shut in seconds if needed.
Nikolai showed her upstairs first.
Her room sat beside his, doors close enough that she could see his from where she stood.The proximity settled something in her chest she hadn’t known was still vibrating.Dominic, apparently, had insisted she take the master suite.
“It made sense,” he’d said over the phone, like that explained everything.“You need space and time to heal, and that room is the place to do it.”
