Chapter 5 - The Truth Unravels
"Kill us?" Lauren echoed, her voice dropping to a hollow, disbelieving whisper. She let out a sharp, joyless laugh that held no humor at all. "Oh, God, Colton. Is that your new script? Are you seriously expecting me to believe that a one-way ticket to Portugal with Jade Foresight was some kind of elaborate rescue mission for us?"
"It’s the truth," Colton pleaded, his hands gripping the edges of the doorframe so tightly his knuckles turned bone-white. "Three weeks before Ren was born, our intelligence picked up chatter from the Moreno cartel out of Miami. They planted a sleeper cell inside our shipping network. Their primary objective wasn't cargo, Lauren—it was my bloodline. They wanted to cripple me by taking you and the baby."
Lauren stared at him, her chest heaving. "If that were true—if there was an actual contract on us—why wouldn't you tell me? Why hide it behind Jade’s name?"
"Because if you knew, you wouldn't have been able to hide your fear!" Colton snapped, the pressure breaking through his restraint. "You would have been terrified every second of every day while carrying our child. I wanted you safe, calm, and protected in our home while I handled the threat. Jade Foresight isn't my mistress, Lauren. She’s a former Mossad operative on my payroll. She was scheduled to board that flight as a decoy to draw the Moreno assassins out into the open while my private detail smuggled you and Ren onto a private Gulfstream out of Augusta under assumed names!"
The revelation hung in the air, dense and suffocating.
Lauren felt the floor tilt beneath her feet. Every instinct told her it was a lie—a masterclass in manipulation spun by a professional liar who commanded criminal empires. Yet, looking into Colton’s bloodshot, tormented eyes, she saw no trace of the cold, calculated mastermind who usually stared down his enemies. She saw a desperate, terrified father on the verge of total collapse.
"If Jade is just a security operative," Lauren whispered, her voice shaking, "why was she calling your phone at midnight for six months?"
"Because she was managing the counter-intelligence sweep across our European ports where the Moreno cartel was funneling weapons!" Colton cried out, sliding his hand through the narrow gap in the door, his palm resting gently against Lauren’s cheek. His skin was warm, his touch instantly sending a familiar, traitorous jolt through her nervous system. "Look at me, Lauren. I love you. I love my daughter. I have never touched Jade Foresight. I have never looked at another woman since the day I met you. You are my life. If anything happened to you or Ren, I would burn this entire city to ash and bury myself in the ruins."
Lauren squeezed her eyes shut, a sob tearing from her throat. She wanted to pull away, to slam the door in his face and lock him out forever. But the sheer weight of his conviction—and the terrifying realization that his world was far more dangerous than she had ever imagined—paralyzed her.
Before she could answer, a sharp, metallic sound shattered the quiet night.
Click.
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It was the unmistakable sound of a rifle bolt sliding home from the darkness across the street.
Colton’s entire body went rigid. In a fraction of a second, the desperate husband vanished, replaced instantly by the apex predator. With terrifying speed, Colton lunged forward, slamming his weight against the door to snap the chain lock, crashing into the hallway and pulling Lauren down behind the solid oak wall just as a high-caliber bullet tore through the front window, shattering glass across the hardwood floor.
