Chapter 4

Sienna's POV

A brief, clipped confirmation came through the radio below—all perimeter exits were officially welded shut.

Tyler let out a raspy bark of laughter, completely unfazed.

"Chloe is scheduled to be shipped overseas," Lucian said, his voice flat, emotionless, like he was reading a quarterly earnings report. "You're my wife. You take her place."

I met his gaze dead-on, without blinking.

"Alright."

A muscle in Lucian's jaw twitched violently. His lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line.

"Sienna, I..."

"You made your choice. That's all that matters."

Every drop of color drained from Lucian's face in an instant.

Without waiting for anyone to push me, I stepped forward, closing the distance between Tyler and me one measured stride at a time.

"Trade her for me."

Tyler blinked, momentarily stunned, before a wide, twisted grin split his face. He signaled with his free hand for his thug to drag my arms behind my back and zip-tie my wrists to a heavy steel pipe.

He stepped close, running the freezing steel barrel of his revolver from my cheekbone down to my chin.

"Sienna Vance... You're the one who blew my eye out and had me rotting in a cell for three years."

"Today, let's see if taking a bullet for Lucian actually makes him give a damn about you."

As he spoke, Tyler's head tilted slightly to check the commotion below, and his grip slackened by half an inch.

That was the exact split-second I was waiting for.

I whipped my right leg up, channeling every ounce of leverage in my body into a vicious kick straight to Tyler's gun wrist.

The revolver flew from his hand, skidding violently across the concrete toward the low ledge.

"Pin her down!" Tyler roared at the top of his lungs.

Both sides collided instantly.

Chloe shrieked, rolling onto the gravel with her hands locked over her head.

Tyler went wild, lunging across the ground toward the dropped weapon.

A gunshot cracked through the howling wind, deafeningly loud.

At that exact second, Lucian hurled his entire weight through the air, slamming me down onto the cold concrete.

The bullet grazed past my scalp, shattering an industrial exhaust duct behind us in an explosion of concrete dust and sparks.

Logan's operators swarmed the roof like a tidal wave, slamming Tyler face-first into the grit, gagging him with heavy cloth, and hauling him toward the service stairs.

The rooftop fell silent once more, save for the whistling wind.

Lucian's full weight was pressed against me, his palms flat on the gritty roof, his fingers trembling uncontrollably.

"Sienna... Why did you actually walk over there?"

I lay flat on the frigid concrete, staring up into the overcast, gray sky.

"You chose me."

"I did," Lucian choked out, burying his face into the hollow of my shoulder, his voice shaking violently. "But I couldn't just watch you die."

"You had a sidearm tucked in your waistband. You were standing two paces closer to him than I was."

Lucian had no answer for that.

He scrambled to his feet, pulling me up and brushing the grit from my clothes.

"Your scalp... it's bleeding."

"I won't die from it."

"From now on, wherever you go, I follow," Lucian said, staring into my eyes. "I'll stand by your side no matter what."

I knocked his hands away, coldly gathering my disheveled hair into place.

"Lucian, on this roof today, the person who told me to go die was you."

"I'll remember that."

"Good. Make sure you do."

Logan jogged up quickly, asking in a low murmur if we should head to the ER immediately.

I shook my head.

"Where's Tyler?"

"In custody, Miss Vance. You need stitches first."

"Keep him locked down. I'll deal with him when I get back."

Lucian chimed in from behind me: "Sienna, leave Tyler to me. Don't get your hands dirty."

I started walking toward the rooftop fire doors, not bothering to look back.

"This is my building."