He used pressure bandages on both sites, hands steady now that the threat was gone.
“They don’t get to take you,” he said, voice rough.“Not like that.Not ever again.”
Eliza leaned into him, trembling, and Kol held her there on the side of the road, engine ticking as it cooled, knowing he would carry the weight of that pain forever.
But she was safe.
And that was all that mattered.He started the truck and drove back on the highway when he realized something.When she had been hypothesizing about how they might have found her, she had been very clear, precise, and in control.
She wasn’t spiraling.She wasn’t guessing wildly.She was reconstructing the chain the way she always did—step by step, pressure point by pressure point.Even now, after everything, her mind went to systems, not fear.To structure, not blame.
And she was right.
Kol glanced sideways then.Eliza was watching the road ahead, jaw set, hands folded loosely in her lap.She didn’t look away.
“I’ve been thinking about what Eliza was saying,” Mateo said finally.“If the goal was psychological dominance, that kind of force usually comes with extraction pressure.This didn’t.”
Elias exhaled slowly.“Then this was just a power play.If they could have got to her, they would have taken her I am sure, but this was definitely a show of force.”
“Yes,” Kol said.“And I’m done reacting.”
“Where do you want to meet?”Dominic asked.There was a pause, then he continued, almost casually.“Actually—don’t answer that yet.I’ll handle it.”
“Somewhere central,” Kol said.“Off the board.We regroup, map the buyer’s insulation properly, then we take the war to their doors.”
Dominic made a thoughtful sound.“I’ll buy us something,” he said.“Paid in full.Cash.Big enough to disappear inside.”
Luca laughed under his breath.“You mean a house.”
“A mansion,” Dominic corrected mildly.“Central U.S.Old money bones.Gated.Private.Kansas City outskirts should work.No one asks questions as long as the payment clears.”
Mateo paused.“You’re serious.”
Dominic sounded faintly amused.“Very.”
Elias didn’t hesitate.“Do it.We’ll all meet there.”
Kol adjusted lanes smoothly, the truck eating miles.“Next,” he said.“We stop thinking about him as a buyer.He is our target.Just like any other we take on.”
Luca’s voice sharpened.“You want to surface him.”
“No,” Kol said.“I want to collapse what makes him safe.”
Eliza turned toward him then, eyes intent.“And if he has insulation and support around him, then we strip that too,” she said.
“Yes,” Kol replied.“Legal, financial, political.We strip it layer by layer.”
“And he’ll notice,” Dominic said.
Kol’s mouth curved, humorless.“Good.”
“Eliza,” Elias said.“What do you remember that scares him the most?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Kol didn’t rush her.
“Not names,” she said finally.“Structures.Trusts that exist only to shield other trusts.Accounts that don’t move money so much as authorize movement.He doesn’t touch anything directly.He approves.Signs off.That means there’s a record somewhere—something that proves intent.”