Chapter 4 - The Wrath of the CalderEvelyn clawed desperately at Roman’s wrist, her face turning a mottled shade of purple as her air supply was cut off.
"R-Roman... please..." she choked out, tears streaming down her carefully contoured cheeks. "I... I was protecting you... she... she betrayed us..."
"Liar," Roman hissed.
He didn't drop her; instead, he slammed her violently against the nearest concrete pillar. The impact rattled her teeth, and a whimper of pure agony escaped her lips.
"For the past six days," Roman continued, his voice dropping into a register so cold and devoid of humanity that even his own armed men flinched, "I have torn this city apart looking for her. Every warehouse, every dock, every shipping container, every rat hole in Baltimore. And do you know what I found while tracing her phone’s last ping?"
He leaned in close, his face inches from hers.
"I found your financial transfers to Victor Cruz. I found your forged board signatures. And," Roman’s eyes flashed with a lethal, terrifying light, "I heard every single word you whispered to her just now through the surveillance wire my security team planted on your driver’s coat."
Evelyn’s eyes bulged in absolute horror. "You... you knew...?"
"I know everything that happens in my city, Evelyn," Roman snarled. "And you made the fatal mistake of touching what belongs to me."
With a disgusted flick of his wrist, he tossed her aside like a broken doll. Evelyn collapsed onto the concrete, coughing and gasping for air, clutching her bruised throat.
Roman didn't give her a second glance. He strode past her, kneeling down beside my chair.
For a terrifying second, I thought I was hallucinating. The man who ruled Baltimore with an iron fist was carefully, gently untying the rough ropes binding my wrists, his fingers brushing against my bleeding skin with infinite tenderness.
"Elena," he murmured, his voice softening—a tone no one in this city had ever heard him use. "Look at me."
I raised my heavy eyelids, my vision swimming. "Roman... Caleb... you have to make sure... he's safe..."
"He's safe," Roman interrupted firmly, his thumb gently wiping a streak of dried blood from my cheek. "Mrs. Adler has him. He’s eating pancakes and watching cartoons right now. My best men are guarding the apartment."
A massive wave of relief washed over me, finally allowing my body to let go of the white-hot adrenaline keeping me upright. My eyes rolled back, and I collapsed forward into his arms.
Roman caught me effortlessly, scooping me up against his chest as if I weighed nothing at all.
As he carried me toward the exit, Evelyn scrambled onto her hands and knees, desperate, frantic, and entirely unhinged.
"You can't do this!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the warehouse walls. "My father is on the board! The syndicate will tear itself apart without my family’s backing! You need us, Roman! You need us to survive!"
Roman stopped at the threshold of the door. He didn't turn around.
"Your father’s assets were frozen twenty minutes ago," Roman said coldly, his voice cutting through the night air like a razor. "His accounts have been seized, his shares transferred to the Calder trust, and his political immunity revoked. By sunrise, your family name will be nothing more than a bad memory in Baltimore history."
He turned his head slightly over his shoulder, casting one final, annihilating glance at her.
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"Take her to the basement cells," Roman ordered his men. "Let her rot there until I decide what kind of trial she deserves."
As hands grabbed a screaming Evelyn and dragged her into the darkness, Roman carried me out into the cool, cleansing night air, sliding into the back of his waiting Maybach as the doors sealed shut against the nightmare.
