CHAPTER 132
LUCAS'S POV
I found her on the fire escape outside our window twenty minutes later, sitting on the metal grating with her knees drawn up to her chest. She didn't acknowledge my presence as I climbed out and settled beside her, but she didn't tell me to leave either.
Below us, the city hummed with its usual nighttime energy - sirens in the distance, late-night traffic, the occasional shout from the street. Normal people living normal lives, completely unaware that a war had just ended in their midst.
"Harry's planning to follow you wherever you go," I said eventually. "Jax is researching trauma therapy specialists. They're both convinced they can save you from yourself."
"And you?" she asked without looking at me.
"I think you're probably right."
That got her attention. She turned to study my face, looking for signs that I was humoring her or trying to manipulate her emotions.
"Explain," she said.
"The system is broken, Skylar. I've seen it from the inside - the way my father operated, the way he bought judges and politicians and police commissioners. The way he made himself untouchable while innocent people suffered." I stared out at the city lights, remembering all the times I'd wanted to refuse William's orders but hadn't found the courage. "Traditional law enforcement can't touch people like him. They have too many resources, too many connections, too much power."
"So you agree that sometimes you have to work outside the system?"
"I agree that sometimes the system is the enemy." I turned to face her fully. "But there's a difference between working outside the system and becoming the thing you're fighting against."
Her jaw tightened. "You think I'm becoming like my father."
"I think you're in danger of becoming like him. There's a difference."
"Is there? Because right now, the only thing standing between me and a complete descent into darkness is three people who love me. And if you can't accept what I need to do..."
"Then you'll do it alone," I finished. "Yeah, I got that part."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, both of us wrestling with the impossible choices ahead. I could understand her logic - hell, I agreed with most of it. The network my father and Jack had built wouldn't stay dismantled forever. New players would emerge, and they'd be smarter, more careful, harder to catch.
But I also understood what Harry and Jax were afraid of. The Skylar sitting next to me wasn't the same person who'd walked into that warehouse a few hours ago. Something fundamental had shifted in her when she'd made the choice to sacrifice those girls to stop her father. She'd crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed.
The question was whether that made her stronger or more dangerous.
"There's something you need to know," I said finally. "About my father's ultimate plan."
"What about it?"
I pulled out my phone and showed her the encrypted files I'd been decoding while she was outside. "I found his endgame scenario. What he was really planning for you."
She took the phone and scrolled through the documents, her expression growing darker with each page. Financial projections, operational plans, psychological profiles - it was all there.
"He wasn't just planning to use me as a trophy," she said quietly.
"No. He was planning to franchise the model. Use you as the template to create an entire generation of women like you - beautiful, deadly, psychologically conditioned to be the perfect combination of victim and predator."
"A breeding program."
"More than that. A training program. He wanted to create a new kind of human trafficking operation, one that produced 'products' that could infiltrate any level of society. Assassins who looked like angels, spies who could seduce state secrets, enforcers who could walk into any room without suspicion."
She handed the phone back to me, her hands steady despite what she'd just learned. "How far along was he?"
"Phase one was complete - that was you. Proof of concept. Phase two was supposed to be identifying and acquiring suitable candidates for the program."
"The college girls."
"Among others. He had profiles on dozens of young women across multiple states. All of them fitting specific psychological and physical criteria."
Skylar stood up and gripped the fire escape railing, her knuckles white against the black metal. "So even with him dead, there are still plans out there. Other people who know what he was trying to accomplish."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
"Then we find them," she said with cold certainty. "We find every single person who knew about this program and we eliminate them before they can start their own version."
"Skylar..."
"No, Lucas. You just proved my point. This isn't over. It'll never be over unless we make sure it's over." She turned to face me, and in the streetlight, her eyes looked like chips of ice. "The question is whether you're with me or against me."
I studied her face, seeing echoes of the girl I'd fallen in love with but also something new. Something harder and more dangerous than anything Jack had ever created.
"What about Harry and Jax?"
"What about them?"
"Are you willing to lose them over this?"
For the first time since we'd started talking, she hesitated. I could see the war playing out behind her eyes - the love she felt for us versus the mission she believed she had to complete.
"I don't want to lose them," she said finally. "But I won't let innocent people suffer just to keep them comfortable with who I am."
"And if they can't accept what you're planning to become?"
"Then I guess I'll find out if love really is unconditional."
She climbed back through the window, leaving me alone on the fire escape with the weight of an impossible choice. Follow the woman I loved into darkness, or try to save her from herself and risk losing her forever.
Through the window, I could see her talking to Harry and Jax, their faces grave as she explained what we'd discovered. I watched Jax's expression crumble as he realized the full scope of what we were facing. I saw Harry's hands clench into fists as his protective instincts warred with his fear of what Skylar was becoming.
And I made my decision.
Not because I thought she was right. Not because I thought her plan would work without destroying her soul.
But because I'd rather follow her into hell than watch her walk there alone.
The only question now was whether Harry and Jax would make the same choice.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
