Chapter 3 - The Collision
The gun in Maya's hand trembled violently as Elias stepped aside.
Gideon Vale walked through the doorway of the small Oregon cottage.
He looked like a ghost wrapped in a tailored black suit.
His face was hollowed out, lined with five years of unimaginable grief and ruthless violence.
When his dark eyes locked onto Maya, the entire room seemed to lose its oxygen.
He did not look at the gun pointed at his chest.
He just stared at her face, drinking in the sight of the woman he had buried an empty casket for.
"You're alive," Gideon whispered, his voice shattering on the final syllable.
Maya gripped the weapon tighter, tears blinding her vision.
"Don't come any closer, Gideon," she warned.
He took a step forward anyway, ignoring the weapon completely.
"I burned half the city to the ground looking for the men who ran your car off that bridge," he said, his voice trembling with raw agony.
"I spent five years begging a god I don't believe in to give you back to me."
Before Maya could respond, a small shadow stepped out from the kitchen.
Leo stood in the hallway, clutching his backpack, staring at the tall, frightening man.
Gideon froze entirely.
His eyes dropped to the four-year-old boy.
He saw his own dark hair, his own eyes, his own face staring back at him.
The ruthless, untouchable crime lord fell to his knees on the wooden floor.
"Maya," Gideon choked out, tears finally spilling over his eyelashes.
"Is he...?"
"His name is Leo," Maya said fiercely, stepping in front of her son.
"And you have no right to him."
Gideon looked up at her, a mixture of profound love and overwhelming betrayal crossing his features.
"You let me mourn you," Gideon said softly.
"You divorced me and left me as a target!" she fired back.
Gideon opened his mouth to explain, but a sudden, deafening crack echoed through the house.
May you like
The front window shattered inward into a million pieces.
Elias tackled Maya to the floor just as a high-caliber sniper bullet embedded itself into the wall exactly where her head had been.
