And the two men standing beside me
felt less like the complication I feared…
and more like the advantage I wasn't supposed to have.
Elias noticed it first the way my shoulders loosened, the way my breathing steadied. His eyes flicked to Rowan's, and something unspoken passed between them.
Not rivalry.
Not jealousy.
Something sharper.
Recognition.
Rowan stepped a little closer, lowering his voice. "Ava… what just changed?"
I swallowed. "I'm not the one being hunted anymore."
Elias tilted his head. "Explain."
I met both of their gazes, my voice steadier than I expected. "He thinks he's playing a game. He thinks I'm cornered. But he doesn't know I'm not alone."
Rowan's lips curved slow, dangerous, almost proud. "So we turn it."
"Exactly," I whispered.
For the first time since everything fell apart, the fear didn't swallow me it lit something inside me. Something fierce.
Elias stepped closer, his expression shifting calculating, protective, focused entirely on me.
"He made his first move," Elias said softly. "Now we make ours."
Rowan crossed his arms. "But we do it smart. Strategic. Unpredictable. We play his obsession against him."
Elias nodded once. "A counter-hunt."
My breath caught. "A… what?"
Elias looked at me not cold this time, not distant. A fire lived behind his calm. "He tracks patterns. He thinks he knows you. So we give him a version of you he can predict."
"And then," Rowan added, eyes glinting, "we break the pattern."
I stared at them. "You two already planned this."
Elias didn't blink. "We've been planning since the moment we brought you here."
Rowan bumped my shoulder gently. "We didn't tell you because you needed to stop feeling like prey first."
"And now you don't," Elias said.
A shiver ran down my spine but not from fear this time.
From the realization that maybe… just maybe… I wasn't the weak one in this story.
Rowan glanced toward the front window. "The sun's almost up. If he's watching, he'll expect your routine to break today."
Elias looked at me again. "So we give him a brand-new version of Ava Cole."
I swallowed. "What does that mean?"
Rowan smirked. "It means you're not running anymore."
Elias stepped closer, lowering his voice until the words seemed to vibrate through me.
"It means you're done hiding."
I felt it the shift.
Inside me.
Around me.
Between us.
The fear didn't disappear… but it stood behind us now, not in front.
For the first time, I felt like maybe I wasn't the victim of this story.
Maybe I was about to become the player.
And somewhere in the quiet house, the air changed like something in the world itself had decided to lean forward and watch.
"Ava," Rowan said, voice soft but certain, "are you ready?"
I wasn't.
But I nodded anyway.
Because ready or not…
we were making our move.
I checked my pocket.
Empty.
My phone was gone.
Rowan swore under his breath. "They cloned it. Swapped it. They've been tracking her this whole time."
Elias nodded once. "And whoever did it… is good. Very good. Professional."
I felt the floor sway, like the world had tilted sideways.
"I didn't even notice," I whispered.
Elias stepped closer, voice softening. "You weren't supposed to. That was the point."
Rowan raked a hand through his hair. "This isn't just some obsessed ex anymore. This feels… bigger."
Elias didn't deny it.
And that scared me more than anything.
I sank onto the couch, hands trembling. "So he knows I'm here. He knows I'm with you."
Elias didn't look away. "He does."
"What do we do?" I asked, breath shaking.
Rowan crouched in front of me, his tone gentle but steady. "We turn the game around. We stop reacting. We make the next move."
Elias stepped to my other side. "And we start with this." He lifted the cloned phone. "This isn't just a tracker. It's a message."
"A message?" I whispered. "What kind?"
Elias's eyes hardened just slightly. "The kind that says he's done chasing."
Rowan's voice dropped. "And ready to take."
My pulse spiked. "Take what?"
Elias didn't answer the question.
He answered with a different one.
"Ava… did you ever tell him about Crescent City?"
I froze.
Rowan lifted his head slowly. "Ava?"
My voice barely formed the truth.
"No," I whispered. "I never did."
Elias exhaled slow, controlled, deadly calm. "Then he didn't find you by accident."
"What do you mean?" I whispered.
Rowan stood up, expression darkening. "He didn't follow your route. He didn't guess your hiding spot. He didn't track noise."
Elias looked at me with something that wasn't fear.
It was realization.
"Ava," he said softly, "your ex didn't find Crescent City."
A beat.
"He followed someone else who came here."
My breath caught.
"Someone… connected to you."
Rowan shook his head in disbelief. "Which means—"
The front door clicked.
All three of us turned.
Not a bang.
Not a break,
A click.
A key sliding into a lock.
My heart stopped.
Rowan reached for me instantly, pulling me behind him as Elias stepped forward, body tense like a coiled blade.
"Someone else has access to this house," Elias whispered.
The door opened—
Slow.
Deliberate.
And a silhouette stepped inside.
Not my ex.
The
Not a stranger.
Not even a threat we expected.
My vision blurred with shock.
"Wait," I whispered. "I… I know him."
Rowan stiffened. "Ava,who is that?"
Elias's eyes narrowed, recognizing the danger before any of us did.
The figure stepped fully into the light.
And my world cracked open.
Because standing in the doorway…
Was my brother.