Page 47 of Crusher's Illusion

Her voice is wrecked, breathless. “Nev… I don’t have long. I stole a phone. They’ll notice soon.”

“Who? What are you talking about?” My pulse slams in my ears.

“The men who had me. They called themselves the Syndicate. I heard them talking about you. About a deal.” Her breath hitches, the sound breaking my chest in two. “They found me again, but I got out. I can’t… I can’t stay in one place anymore.”

My blood goes cold. The Echelon Syndicate. The same people Erik’s been fighting. The same people Bria’s tied to.

Fear and rage slam into me all at once, so sharp I have to grip the phone tighter to keep from dropping it. “Where are you?”

“I can’t say. If I do, they’ll find you, too.” Her voice spikes with panic. “I just needed you to know… they’re not done. With either of us.”

“Lena… wait…”

“I have to go,” she says in a rush, and the line goes dead.

I sit frozen, staring at my phone with dread in my stomach. The Syndicate didn’t just put a target on my back, they put their hands on my sister again.

A knock rattles the door. I freeze. My pulse climbs into my throat.

“Nevaeh,” a low, rough voice calls.

It can’t be. Not after Bria’s voice in my ear, cutting me open. Not after the way I left.

“Who is it?” My voice comes out tight, small.

“It’s me. Erik.”

I press my forehead to the door, every nerve screaming at me tonotbelieve it. But there’s something in the way he says my name, like it costs him to speak. My fingers shake as I undo the lock.

“I… I thought you were gone,” I manage to say on a croak.

Crusher steps in, eyes heavy with regret and pain. “It wasn’t me saying that about you,” he says quietly, each word a promise. “I never should have doubted you. I should have trusted you.”

My chest cracks open, but I don’t let him in right away. Not in the room. Not into my head. “You didn’t believe me before,” I whisper.

“I do now.” He steps closer, until there’s barely air between us. “And I should have from the start. I’m sorry.” His apology lands on my bruised heart like a salve. I see the raw honesty inhis gaze. The weight of his own scars. Tears prick at my eyes, but I blink them back and sit on the floor.

Erik kneels beside me, his voice breaking with the weight of everything. “I was a damn fool to let the lies get between us. To let you get away the first time.”

I reach out, hesitating, then let my hand rest in his. “I thought you believed me.”

“I do,” he responds, squeezing my hand. “I believe in you. Always have.”

Memories of his lips on my body, his heavy breath across my skin, the desperation and want we both needed that night. The way he made me feel like I was finally someone important. I wasn’t a castaway or a throw-off. I was real. I was a woman who was worshiped the way a woman should be. Crusher turned my world upside down, and we didn’t even exchange names or phone numbers.

The silence stretches between us, heavy but healing. Finally, Erik stands and pulls me up. “We’re not running anymore. We take this fight to them. Together.”

I nod, feeling something fierce light inside me, the first spark of hope in so long.

“We swear it,” I say with a steady voice. “No more lies. No more hiding.”

Erik pulls me into him like he’s afraid I’ll vanish. I lean into him willingly, letting myself believe, for the first time, that maybe, just maybe, we can win.

Together, we will face the storm. Together, we will bring the Echelon Syndicate down.

An oath is made in the cramped, grimy motel room, not just between the two of us, but against the darkness that is hunting us both.

TWENTY-TWO