Chapter 73: Aria

Sienna lost track of time somewhere in the middle of it all. Minutes blurred into something longer, the darkness of the trunk pressing in around her, the hum of the road the only thing keeping her tethered to the present moment.

She kept her breathing slow and even, the way she had trained herself to do a long time ago, back before Viktor, back before any of this had become her life.

Finally, the car began to slow. Then it stopped completely.

She heard the door open, then close. Footsteps moved away from the car, and a voice, low and familiar, began to speak. Marcel. He was talking to someone, his voice tight with the kind of tension that came from doing business that could not afford mistakes.

"...the merchandise will be ready," he was saying. "I just need to leave town for a few days, quietly, before Viktor starts asking questions. He can’t suspect anything."

Sienna lay perfectly still, listening, memorizing every word. So, Marcel had his own games running behind the soft, caring face he had shown her back in that room. Of course he did.

Everyone in that house had something running behind their face. She should have known better than to expect anything less.

This was her moment.

She reached carefully into the small pocket of her pocket, her fingers finding the little device she always carried, the one she had built a few days ago in San Luca, small enough to hide in the seam of a pocket, powerful enough to slip into almost any system with a wireless signal close enough to reach. She pressed it against the inside panel of the trunk and let it work.

It took only seconds.

Outside, she heard the engine sputter, then die completely.

"What the hell," Marcel’s voice snapped, sharp with sudden alarm. She heard him moving quickly, the driver’s door opening again, the sound of the ignition turning over and over, refusing to catch.

"Come on. Come on!" His voice rose, frustration bleeding into panic. "Why isn’t this damn car moving?"

He cursed loudly, kicking something, maybe the tire, maybe the door, Sienna couldn’t tell. But it didn’t matter. While he stood there, distracted, angry, cursing at a car that would not listen to him, no matter how many times he turned the key, Sienna eased the trunk open just enough to slip out, quiet as a shadow, and disappeared into the dark before he ever turned around.

She used the map on her phone to guide her the rest of the way, moving quickly through streets that felt both familiar and strange all at once, like visiting a memory instead of a real place. It had been a long time since she had walked these sidewalks. Longer than she liked to admit.

Her apartment looked exactly the way she had left it. Untouched. Frozen in time, almost, like the whole place had been waiting patiently for her to come back and pick up right where she had left off.

Everything sat where she remembered leaving it, the small stack of books on the side table, the framed photo on the wall, the quiet stillness of a home no one had lived in for weeks.

Only the flowers had changed.

They sat wilted and brown in their pot by the window, long dead now, no one having thought to water them since the day she left.

Sienna stared at them for a moment longer than she meant to, something tightening in her chest at the sight of them, small and stupid as it was. A part of her old life, gone quietly while she was busy surviving somewhere else.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it.

She moved quickly through the apartment, pulling a suitcase down from the top of her closet, filling it with only what mattered.

Her passport was tucked safely inside an old book where she had hidden it long ago. The huge amount of money she had saved and kept away for exactly this kind of emergency, folded carefully into an envelope no one else knew existed.

A few clothes. Nothing more. She had learned, somewhere along the way, how to travel light, how to leave a place behind without looking back too long.

She had just zipped the suitcase shut when she heard it. A sound. Outside. Footsteps, maybe, or something being moved.

Sienna froze completely, her whole body going rigid, her mind racing through every terrible possibility all at once. Had Viktor found her already? Or worse, had his enemies found her first, the ones Elena had been so eager to hand her over to?

She didn’t wait to find out.

She moved fast, grabbing her suitcase and slipping toward the back door, climbing the narrow staircase that led up toward the second floor, her heart hammering so hard she could feel it in her throat. She needed somewhere to hide, somewhere to think, even just for a moment.

But when she reached the top of the stairs, she found someone already standing there.

A young woman, about her age, stood at the foot of the staircase below, arms crossed, staring up at her with an expression caught somewhere between relief and pure exasperation.

"There you are, girl," the woman said. "Where the hell have you been?"

Sienna blinked, and for a second, none of the fear mattered at all. She looked down at her friend, finally recognizing the familiar face staring back up at her.

"Aria," she breathed.

She hurried down the stairs, nearly stumbling in her rush, and threw her arms around her friend’s neck the moment she was close enough, holding on tight, feeling, for the first time in what felt like forever, something close to safe.

"Yes, I missed you too," Aria said, laughing softly despite herself, patting Sienna’s back before pulling away to look at her properly. "I’ve been calling you since I got back. I’ve been coming by here for days. Where the hell have you been?" Her eyes dropped, catching sight of the suitcase sitting by Sienna’s feet. "And what’s with the suitcase?"

"Now is not the time, Aria," Sienna said quickly, glancing back toward the front of the apartment, toward the door, toward whatever might still be outside waiting for her. "We need to get out of here. I’ll tell you everything. I promise. Just not here. Not now."