Chapter 6: Danger Behind Every Corner

EMILIA POV

The photograph trembled in my hands.

It had been taken only two weeks ago.

I recognized the gray business suit I had been wearing outside Sofia's apartment.

I even remembered that afternoon.

I had stopped for coffee before heading to work.

Completely unaware that someone had been watching me.

"This can't be real," I whispered.

Ghost took the photograph back, his expression growing darker with every passing second.

"It's real," he said quietly.

"And it's recent."

"How could they find me?"

"Someone had to be following you."

"For weeks... maybe even months."

A cold chill crept down my spine.

"Why me?"

Ghost looked toward the clubhouse office where Marco was already studying the photo.

"We don't know yet."

"But we're going to find out."

Marco slammed his fist onto the table.

"Damn it!"

"The Reapers planned this long before they killed Dad."

"This wasn't random."

"Somebody wanted Emilia."

The room fell silent.

Every patched member looked toward me.

For the first time since coming home...

I felt like the center of the storm.

"Ghost," Marco ordered.

"She's under lockdown."

"She doesn't leave the clubhouse."

"Not alone."

"Understood."

Ghost didn't hesitate.

"I'll stay with her."

Marco nodded.

"Twenty-four hours a day."

"If anyone wants her..."

"They'll have to go through you first."

"They won't get the chance."

Ghost's answer was calm.

Almost terrifying.

Later that afternoon, I escaped to the back of the clubhouse hoping to clear my head.

The desert stretched endlessly beyond the fence.

It had always felt peaceful.

Today it felt like a prison.

"Thinking too much?"

Ghost appeared beside me carrying two bottles of water.

"I'm trying not to."

"Doesn't seem to be working."

"Not really."

He handed me one of the bottles.

"Drink."

"That's an order too?"

"No."

"Just concern."

I smiled faintly.

"You're different."

"Six years changes people."

"It changed you."

"I had to survive."

"Marco said you've been working as a gun-for-hire."

Ghost remained silent.

"Is it true?"

"Sometimes."

"You killed people?"

His eyes never left the horizon.

"Yes."

"Do you regret it?"

"Some of them deserved it."

"Others..."

"I still see their faces."

"That's why you look so tired."

Ghost chuckled bitterly.

"You always noticed things nobody else did."

The silence between us became strangely comfortable.

Then he spoke again.

"You know what got me through those six years?"

"What?"

"Thinking about you."

"Imagining you safe."

"Happy."

"Far away from this life."

I looked down at the bottle in my hands.

"I wasn't happy."

"I kept pretending I was."

"David looked perfect on paper."

"Successful."

"Kind."

"Respectable."

"But every time he kissed me..."

"I compared him to you."

Ghost slowly turned toward me.

"Emilia..."

"Don't."

"I don't know what any of this means anymore."

"Neither do I."

"But I know how I feel."

Before either of us could continue, the sound of an engine echoed across the property.

A pickup truck sped toward the clubhouse gate.

"That's not one of ours," Ghost muttered.

Within seconds, alarms rang across the compound.

"Incoming!"

Club members rushed toward defensive positions.

The pickup smashed through the front gate.

"Get down!" Ghost shouted.

Gunfire exploded from the truck windows.

Bullets tore through parked motorcycles.

Glass shattered everywhere.

Ghost grabbed my arm and dragged me behind a concrete pillar.

"Stay here!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Emilia!"

"Listen to me!"

"If I tell you to run..."

"You run."

"No arguments."

Before I could answer, two masked gunmen jumped from the truck.

"There she is!" one of them yelled.

"Take the girl!"

Ghost's eyes turned deadly cold.

"They came for you."

"Behind me."

He stepped in front of me, pistol already raised.

Three shots echoed.

One attacker collapsed instantly.

The second dove behind a burning motorcycle.

"Ghost! Left side!" Marco shouted.

Ghost spun just in time to shoot another Reaper climbing over the fence.

Everything happened so fast.

Smoke.

Screams.

Gunfire.

I barely had time to think.

Then I noticed another masked man slipping around the side of the building.

He was aiming directly at Ghost.

"Axel!"

Without thinking, I shoved him sideways.

The gunshot rang out.

Pain exploded across my shoulder.

I hit the ground hard.

"Emilia!"

Ghost caught me before my head struck the concrete.

Blood soaked through my sleeve.

"You're bleeding."

"It's... just a scratch," I gasped.

Ghost looked ready to kill someone.

"Marco!"

"Finish this!"

"I'm taking her inside!"

He lifted me into his arms as if I weighed nothing.

Inside the clubhouse infirmary, Mama C immediately rushed over.

"Lay her down!"

"The bullet grazed her shoulder," Ghost said.

"She pushed me out of the way."

"Idiot girl," Mama C muttered while disinfecting the wound.

"Hurts," I hissed.

"Good."

"Means you're alive."

Ghost never left my side.

His hand remained wrapped tightly around mine.

"You could've died," he whispered.

"So could you."

"That's different."

"No, it isn't."

"It is for me."

"I'd rather take a bullet than watch you get hurt again."

Our eyes met.

Everything around us faded away.

Slowly...

Ghost lifted his hand to my face.

"I almost lost you today."

"You didn't."

"Don't scare me like that again."

"Only if you promise the same."

A faint smile crossed his lips.

"Deal."

He leaned closer.

So close that I could feel his breath against my skin.

My heart pounded wildly.

Then the infirmary door burst open.

"Ghost!" Marco shouted.

"We've got one alive."

"One of the Reapers survived."

"He says their president doesn't want Emilia dead..."

"He wants her brought to him."

The room fell completely silent.

Ghost's hand instinctively tightened around mine.

"Over my dead body," he growled.