CHAPTER 24: AT THE FOOT OF ECLIPSE
Some meetings don't need appointments. Just one person standing at the base of the tower.. and another who can't pretend they don't see.
---
Evelyn's phone still buzzed faintly in her hand.
One vibration. Then silence.
But those words hung in the air like smoke:
"I'm at the foot of the Eclipse."
Diego broke the silence first.
"He's not waiting for a reply."
Viktor strode straight to the control panel, flicking on every front-facing camera.
The massive screen flickered to life.
The plaza at Eclipse's base sprawled outblinding lights, thrumming crowds, neon billboards bleeding across the sky like spilled blood.
And in the middle of it all... man standing still.
Long black coat brushing past his knees. Tall frame. Unmoving not hiding a damn thing.
Evelyn's heart skipped just seeing that silhouette from behind. A sharp, unwelcome jolt.
"It's him," she whispered.
Viktor didn't ask. Neither did Diego.
They both knew.
---
"You stay here," Viktor said, voice like iron.
"I have to go down there," Evelyn shot back.
Diego stepped in, hand gentle but firm on her shoulder:
"Muñeca, if you step out, he'll think he's already won."
"I'm not a trophy," she snapped.
Diego met her eyes, unflinching:
"But he sees you as something to reclaim."
Viktor closed in behind her, his voice dropping low, rumbling through her.
"Evelyn... you only need to stand between us one more time. Right here."
Her chest tightened, a vise squeezing her ribs.
She turned, facing the two men flanking her:
one her past calling her name,
the other her present holding her tight.
"I'm not running to him," she said. "But if I don't go down, he won't stop."
Diego's fingers tightened on her shoulder, just a fraction:
"You go... we go."
"But not in front of me."
Evelyn locked eyes with him:
"Then I stand in the middle."
Viktor and Diego froze in unison.Mirror images,heartbeat too quick.
Viktor murmured low: "You always find the most dangerous spot."
Diego added:
"And the one that keeps us from walking away."
Evelyn didn't reply.
She turned for the door.
Viktor and Diego exchanged a glance one beat.
Then followed.
---
The Eclipse plaza had no clue it was about to become ground zero for three colliding storms.
Viktor's boots hit the marble with heavy thuds.
Diego lagged half a step, positioned just behind Evelyn's shoulder.
They emerged from the main doors like elongated shadows slicing through the ad lights.
The crowd parted on instinc no orders given,
but you don't brush up against death without feeling the chill.
The man in the black coat at the plaza's heart didn't turn.
Not until their footsteps halted right in front of him. Then, slow as sin, he pivoted.
Evelyn saw his face.
Not much older, Same eyes. Bottomless. Once so familiar it hurt.
"Vee," he said. Real voice. No screen between them.
She drew a deep breath:
"Don't call me that."
He smiled faintly:
"You still hate it."
Viktor shifted forward, shielding half her body in his shadow:
"You're V.S.?"
The man sized Viktor up like scanning forged steel.
"Yeah."
Diego flanked the other side, curving in to box Evelyn between them:
"Then you're in the wrong place."
V.S. eyed the two men then back to Evelyn:
"I just came to take you home."
Evelyn cut in sharp:
"I'm not going."
V.S. didn't flinch.
He just asked: "Because of them?"
She went quiet.
Viktor answered for her:
"Because this is where she belongs."
V.S. smirked:
"She belongs to the man who pulled her from the first pit."
Diego's laugh was cold: "Every city's got its pits. Question is, who jumps in for her."
V.S. turned to Diego:
"You're the one behind the casino hit last week?"
Diego lifted his chin:
"And you're the one who paid for tonight's sniper."
"Didn't land," V.S. said flatly.
"And never will," Viktor growled.
The air turned ice-cold, the hush before thunder.
---
Evelyn took half a step forward.
Just half.
Enough for Viktor and Diego's hands to snap out gripping her back.
She glanced over her shoulder:
"I need to talk to him. Once."
Viktor clamped her wrist:
"No."
Diego's hand on her hip: "Not this close."
V.S. watched, eyes darkening.
"They holding you prisoner?"
Evelyn shook her head: "No. I'm here by choice."
"Two men," V.S. said slowly, "gripping you so tight you have to say that."
Viktor's voice roughened:
"You lost the right to look at her like that."
V.S. faced him:
"Rights? I'm not talking rights. I'm talking... where she once belonged."
Diego chuckled low:
"What belongs to the past should stay buried."
V.S. stared Diego down:
"Like anyone who touches what's mine."
Diego edged half a step closer:
"You're awful close to the line yourself."
V.S. didn't retreat. Didn't advance.
He just turned back to Evelyn:
"You know I didn't come to kill. I came to take you back."
Evelyn exhaled slow:
"I'm not something to take."
"But you're the only one who ever believed in me," V.S. replied.
That hit her chest like a fist quick, brutal.
Viktor felt it. Instantly.
He yanked her tighter against him, voice a rumble:
"Your past has no place here."
Diego pressed in from behind, murmuring:
"And yours... is standing between two guns."
V.S. let out a soft laugh.
"Then shoot."
No one fired. Three seconds.
Just Evelyn's heartbeat thundering in herears... and the night wind whipping the plaza.
V.S. stepped back, One step. A statement.
"I won't take you by force."
He looked at Evelyn:
"But you'll have to choose."
Viktor fired back. "She already has."
Diego: "Every damn day."
V.S. smiled faintly: "No. Tonight... you really choose."
He turned away.
But before vanishing, he dropped the last line like a blade falling slow:
"Vee... tonight, when you're not between them anymore, ask yourself... are you shaking from fear of them...or because you never stopped shaking for me?"
He melted into the crowd.
Black coat gone like a ghost.
Evelyn stood frozen. Her body didn't tremble.
But inside... it did.
Viktor turned to her, eyes not burning, not coldjust piercing:
"You okay?"
Diego from behind, voice gravel:
"He just dragged you back to the past with words."
Evelyn let out a shaky breath: "And I'm still here."
Viktor nodded:
"Yeah. Still between us."
Diego's hand ghosted her back, featherlight:
"But from tonight, the war's not on the table anymore."
Viktor finished:
"It's in every step you take."
Evelyn stared where V.S. had disappeared.
Then turned.
Faced the two men bookending her.
"I'm not running to anyone," she said. "And I won't be dragged."
Viktor and Diego held her gaze.
But their eyes... they screamed war
Three blocks away, on a distant rooftop, V.S. lowered his phone:
"Phase one complete."
And behind him... he wasn't alone.