Chapter 72 Bringing Her Back

• Lucas POV
• As I sit with Alissia, bundled under the thick throw from the sofa, I can’t shake the growing tension in my gut. Demitri and Blake are at the table with blueprints sprawled out, finalizing plans for tonight’s hit. My patience is running thin—sitting this one out feels wrong, but leaving Alissia alone, or worse, trusting her safety to anyone else, isn’t an option.
• Alissia’s still, bundled tightly, her face pale and silent as if frozen in that moment at the casino. Since it happened, she hasn’t spoken a single word, and there’s a weight in the silence between us that eats at me, adding to the creeping guilt. She’d laughed it off when I’d warned her before, shrugging off my caution, but now… I know what she’ll decide once she processes everything. No one in their right mind would stay if they knew they were a target. And it feels like my fault—Demitri never had issues with Volkov before, and then I agree to take him out, and suddenly, Alissia’s caught in the crossfire.