Chapter 5 The Breaking Point

Sera hadn't slept.

She'd spent the last twenty-four hours chasing ghosts through dead files, surveillance feeds mysteriously wiped, and financial records scrubbed clean. Everything Lucien had told her about the Callisto shipment, about Rourke's signature, about corruption running through the department like a slow, rotting infection-it all lined up. Too clean. Too quiet.

She should've felt vindicated.

Instead, she felt sick.

"You look like hell," Detective Valen said as she walked into the precinct, dropping a file on her desk.

"Thanks. That's what I was going for," she muttered, flipping it open with shaking fingers.

More gaps. More dead ends.

"You coming to the captain's briefing?" Valen asked.

Sera didn't answer. She was already standing, walking-no, marching-to Rourke's office. Her pulse roared in her ears. She didn't knock.

Rourke looked up from his desk with the calm expression of a man who always knew where every piece on the board sat.

"Marlowe. Something wrong?"

"I know about the shipment," she said flatly. "The real one. The tunnels. The signature on the clearance report."

His eyes narrowed slightly, but his face didn't change. "You've been digging in restricted files."

"That's not a denial."

A beat of silence passed. He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands.

"I suggest you stop chasing fairy tales. You're tired. Emotional. It happens."

"You're dirty," she said. "How long have you been feeding intel to Callisto?"

"Careful, Detective."

She slammed her hands on his desk. "You put lives at risk. You made me hunt shadows while the real threat moved under our feet. You knew. And you did nothing."

"I did what was necessary to keep order," Rourke snapped, his calm slipping. "You think arresting one crime family makes the others disappear? We make peace with the devil, or we watch the city burn."

Sera stepped back, heart hammering.

"I'm going to bring this to Internal Affairs."

Rourke stared at her a long time. Then he reached for the intercom.

A moment later, two officers entered. Not just any officers-IA.

"Detective Sera Marlowe," one of them said, voice cold, "you're under investigation for unauthorized access to classified files, breach of protocol, and suspected collusion with a known criminal informant."

"What?" she whispered, stunned.

They moved toward her with cuffs.

"Rourke, don't-"

"You've been compromised," he said coldly. "I gave you too much leeway. My mistake."

They cuffed her.

As they led her out of the office, everything felt like slow motion.

Her career. Her credibility. Her life.

All unraveling.

Because of him.

Because of Lucien.

And yet, beneath all the fear and rage, something else beat louder:

She still wanted to protect him.

Even now.

Lucien stared out the penthouse window, his phone resting silently on the glass table behind him. No missed calls. No texts. Just silence.

She was gone.

Not a word since that night. No trace of her in the shadows. He'd checked the precinct once, sent someone else the second time. Nothing. Like she'd disappeared.

He lit a cigarette with slow fingers and took a drag.

Something was wrong.

Too quiet.

Too clean.

His right-hand man, Matteo, entered the room, his expression unusually grim. "We got a problem."

Lucien turned. "Bigger than the one I already have?"

"Sera Marlowe. She was picked up by Internal Affairs this morning. Suspended. Under investigation."

Lucien froze.

"Rourke set her up?"

Matteo nodded. "Looks that way. They're saying she accessed files on the Callisto shipment without clearance. Talking like she's in your pocket."

Lucien laughed once-a low, bitter sound. "Of course they are. Easier to make her the traitor than face their own rot."

"There's more." Matteo hesitated. "Callisto's moving. Word is, they're planning a hit."

Lucien's jaw clenched. "On me?"

"On both of you. She's a liability now. And you... well, they never needed much of a reason."

The cigarette burned forgotten in his fingers.

Lucien paced once, then twice. The lines were shifting beneath his feet. The moment he'd pulled Sera into this world, he'd marked her for blood.

And she was paying for it.

Matteo watched him carefully. "What do you want to do?"

Lucien ground out the cigarette and turned, voice steel. "Get eyes on Rourke. Tap his driver, his calls, everything. And find out where they're holding Sera."

Matteo nodded, already moving.

Lucien poured a shot of whiskey and tossed it back, but it did nothing to dull the razor edge in his chest. His mind replayed every word she'd said, every look she'd given him. The way her walls had finally cracked open-and how he'd let her go without a fight.

He wouldn't make that mistake again.

She'd fought to keep him at arm's length.

Now she was in danger because of him.

And if they thought he would let her burn for it...

They'd forgotten who the hell he was.

The interrogation room was small, sterile, and windowless. A single flickering light above her. A mirrored wall she didn't need to be told was two-way glass. Sera sat cuffed to the table, wrists raw from metal. Her blazer was gone. Her badge too.

Stripped. Not just of power-but of identity.

Across from her sat a man in a crisp gray suit with a badge she didn't recognize. Not Internal Affairs. Not local. Something deeper. Dirtier.

"Detective Marlowe," he said, opening a thin file. "You've had quite the week."

She didn't respond.

"You accessed restricted case files. Surveillance footage that mysteriously disappeared right after. You've been spotted at Lucien Romano's penthouse. Twice."

Still silence.

"You know what I think?" He leaned forward, smiling like a knife. "I think you finally got tired of chasing monsters and decided to sleep with one."

Her eyes snapped up. Cold. Burning.

"Careful," she said. "You're not qualified to say what I sleep with."

He chuckled, tapping the file. "I'm not here to moralize. I'm here to clean up a mess. A very expensive one."

"Rourke sent you?"

"Rourke's a middleman. The kind of man who understands the importance of balance. You? You've been tipping the scales."

Sera stared him down. "You can't make this stick."

"You're not here because we need to. You're here because it sends a message."

He stood, walked around behind her, and leaned down. "Stay out of this. Let the wolves devour each other. You go back to your little apartment. Get a desk job. Maybe drink yourself to sleep for a few years. But if you keep digging?"

His breath ghosted her ear.

"You disappear."

He left without another word.

She sat there shaking, not from fear-but rage.

She knew now.

This went deeper than Rourke. Deeper than Callisto. There were chains under this city that ran through the courts, the police, the press. And she'd pulled on the wrong one.

But she wasn't done.

Not yet.

Meanwhile...

Lucien stood at the edge of a rooftop across from the IA holding facility, black coat whipping in the wind. Below, cars passed like ants. Cameras swept in slow arcs. But his people had already mapped the blind spots.

He lit another cigarette. Matteo stood beside him, dressed in black and armed.

"You're sure she's inside?" Lucien asked.

"Confirmed. She's being kept off the books. No official record. They want her to vanish."

Lucien smiled grimly. "Then we'll make noise."

"What's the play?"

"Distraction on the street. Smoke. Two teams. Get her out quiet. Clean."

"And after?"

Lucien turned, eyes hard. "After? We burn the house down."

The alarms started low, barely a blip in the background. By the time the guards noticed the smoke curling from the stairwell, it was already too late.

Lucien moved like a shadow-silent, precise. Matteo's team hit the front entrance in riot gear, drawing attention and gunfire. Lucien slipped in through the emergency corridor, the master code already overridden. The layout of the IA holding facility was etched into his mind. He didn't make a sound as he moved.

He didn't have time.

Sera sat in the holding cell, fists clenched, jaw tight. She knew a diversion when she heard one. Sirens wailed. Shouting echoed. Then the lights cut out.

Darkness.

Then-

"Get up."

Her head snapped toward the door.

Lucien stood in the threshold, black-clad, a gun in one hand, her badge in the other.

"You-" she started.

"No time. Move."

She didn't hesitate. As he unlocked the cuffs, her hands trembled-but not from fear. She was furious. And relieved. And everything in between.

They ran.

Smoke coiled through the halls like warning serpents. The exit was chaos-Matteo's crew was already pulling out. Lucien shoved her into the back of a black SUV and climbed in beside her.

The doors slammed.

They drove into the night.

Only once they were clear of the district, engine humming down empty roads, did Lucien speak.

"You okay?"

Sera turned on him like a storm.

"You came into a government holding facility and broke me out?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea what that's going to cost me?"

"Yes."

She shoved him. Hard. "You arrogant son of a-"

He caught her wrists mid-swing, not to hurt-but to stop her from breaking apart.

"Don't," he said quietly. "Don't pretend you didn't want me to."

Tears stung her eyes before she could stop them. "I didn't ask for this."

"No," he said. "But you asked for the truth. You found it. Now what?"

She breathed hard, chest rising and falling. Her voice cracked. "They were going to make me disappear."

"And I wouldn't let them."

Their foreheads met in the dark, breath mingling.

"You ruin everything," she whispered.

He nodded. "So do you."

She kissed him. This time it wasn't about lust. It was survival. Fear. Rage. Desperation. All of it poured into him. His hands gripped her face like he might lose her again.

When they finally pulled apart, she stared at him.

"What happens now?"

Lucien's eyes were ice and fire.

"We go to war."