"Aria, calm down" said Alexander, his deep voice slicing through the static of the line as his instincts instantly locked into place. "Where are you right now?"

"I’m at my house..." sobbed Aria, her breaths catching sharply in her throat as she huddled in the dark.

"I don’t understand, what’s happening?" asked Alexander, his eyes narrowing as he gripped the phone tightly.

"I’m looking at the security feeds... the outer perimeter cameras" said Aria, her voice trembling violently with a suffocating terror. "There are several dark vehicles parked outside... and so many men are actively sneaking into the courtyard. Oh my god... oh my god, they’re breaking through the front gates! They’re coming straight for the house! Please, Alex, help me! Help me!"

"I am heading to your coordinates right now, do not hang up the phone!" shouted Alexander, already moving toward the penthouse exit. "Aria? Aria! Dammit... shit!"

The line went dead with a sharp, static pop.

Alexander slammed the phone into his jacket pocket, his jaw clenched so tight the muscles in his face flared. Victoria stood near the velvet sofa, her sharp eyes wide as she tracked his sudden, aggressive shift. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"What the hell just happened?" asked Victoria, her voice laced with immediate concern. "Did you just say Aria? Aria Ashford?!"

"Yeah, her" said Alexander, his focus consumed by the logistics of the extraction. "Her estate is being actively breached right now."

"Shit! Run, go save her!" yelled Victoria, her dominant, petulant facade evaporating into genuine panic. "She is a very close friend of mine too! Don’t let those bastards touch her!"

Without waiting for another word or looking back to see if Victoria was following, Alexander burst through the heavy security doors of the penthouse and sprinted down the modern stairwell. His heart was hammering a furious rhythm, a familiar spike of adrenaline surging through his veins—but a cold reality hit him as he reached the basement level. He had no heavy firepower on him. No tactical vest, no rifles, just his standard concealed piece.

He reached the Shelby, threw the door open, and slid into the leather seat, twisting the key until the supercharger screamed to life like a caged beast.

Before he could slam the car into reverse to leave her behind, the passenger door violently flew open. Victoria scrambled into the seat, her backless black silk dress tearing at the seam as she pulled her legs inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

Alexander glared at her, his dark eyes flashing with a dangerous impatience. He had wanted to leave her behind in the safety of the penthouse, but with Aria’s life hanging by a thread, there was no time left to argue or convince her to get out.

"Hold on" said Alexander, his voice a low growl.

He slammed his boot down onto the accelerator. The Shelby’s rear tires shrieked against the painted concrete floorboards, leaving thick black lines of burning rubber as the muscle car tore out of the underground parking structure.

"If there are as many targets as she said, we can’t just roll up there blind" said Alexander, his dark eyes cutting to the rearview mirror as he expertly aggressively threaded the Shelby through the heavy afternoon traffic. "Hold on."

Instead of speeding straight toward the residential highway, Alexander pulled the steering wheel to the right, making the muscle car’s tires squeak as he drifted into the familiar apartment where Jessica, Marcus’s mother, lived. He slammed the car into park right outside the main building, leaving the engine roaring as he threw his door open.

"Stay in the car" said Alexander, his tone flat as he left Victoria wide-eyed in the passenger seat.

He bounded up the stairs two at a time, using his spare key card to unlock the apartment door with a sharp, mechanical click. Moving with hyper-focused urgency, he strode straight into the secondary closet where the green tactical supply crates were secured. He cracked the heavy latches open, grabbing a handful of high-caliber handguns, loaded magazines, and extra loose cartridges, stuffing them carelessly into a heavy black canvas duffel bag.

As he zipped the bag shut and spun around to leave, he suddenly froze in the hallway threshold.

The bathroom door had just swung wide open. Jessica stepped out into his line of sight devoid of any clothing. The steam from the shower drifted lazily around her mature, flawless figure, and the sight of her thick, natural blonde pubic hair left Alexander stunned for a fraction of a second, the raw imagery burning into his hyper-tuned mind.

Jessica didn’t scream. She simply froze like a statue in the middle of the hallway, her breath catching as her eyes locked onto his imposing, armed frame.

"I have to run" said Alexander, violently breaking his own gaze as his tactical focus forcefully snapped back into place. "Forgive the interruption."

Without waiting for a response, he took off at a full sprint, throwing the apartment door shut behind him as he descended the stairs. He reached the rear of the Shelby, popped the trunk, and threw the heavy, clanking duffel bag of firearms into the cargo space before slamming the lid shut with a loud, metallic thud.

He scrambled back into the driver’s seat, pulled the shifter into gear, and looked over at Victoria, whose knuckles were white from gripping the dashboard.

"Let’s go" said Alexander.

Victoria suddenly let out a furious scream and violently slammed her encrypted phone down onto the floorboards of the passenger side, her chest heaving with sheer panic.

"What the hell is wrong?" asked Alexander, his eyes firmly locked onto the fast-moving highway ahead.

"Marcus isn’t answering his fucking phone!" shouted Victoria, her fingers digging deep into the leather of the seat. "Shit! Where the hell is that bastard when someone actually needs him?!"

"Let me try" said Alexander, his voice cool and clinical as he reached into his jacket, pulled out his own secure device, and handed it to her. "Dial him from mine."

Victoria grabbed the phone with trembling fingers, quickly punching in the private number and pressing it to her ear. It rang twice, but before the third ring could even finish, the line was abruptly disconnected with a sharp, digital click.

"He hung up on me!" Victoria spat, her jaw tightening.

"Call him again" said Alexander, his deep voice dropping into an icy rumble.

She immediately hit redial, the line connecting for a fraction of a second before the exact same cold, immediate rejection cut the signal short, leaving them with nothing but a flat, silent screen as the Shelby continued its violent, high-speed sprint toward the Ashford estate.