Chapter 394

The thick smoke stung her eyes shut.

Stella Valentine's throat burned with each breath, as if swallowing razor blades. She twisted her wrists violently against the coarse ropes, feeling them bite deeper into her flesh. Blood dripped from her fingertips.

A shard of glass sliced fresh wounds into her palm.

She'd stolen it when Vincent Atlante wasn't looking—shattering a liquor bottle and hiding the sharpest fragment in her sleeve. Now it was her only hope.

The inferno grew hotter.

Scorching waves seared her cheeks. She had to cut free before the flames consumed her—or the impending explosion tore them all apart.

Then she noticed something odd about the ground.

Dark tarps peeked through the dirt, arranged in a perfect circle around them. The realization hit like ice water.

Gunpowder.

That acrid scent from firecrackers after New Year's celebrations.

Vincent never intended to burn them alive. This was a bomb.

"Stella..."

A weak voice carried through the smoke.

She looked up to see Adrian Roland collapsed nearby, his body drenched in blood. He struggled to rise, his injured leg buckling with every movement. Beads of sweat rolled down his ashen face.

"Stay back!" she screamed. "You can't help me!"

Adrian gave a pained smile. "I know... I can't even save myself."

He fell again, then forced himself upright.

"I just wanted... to be with you."

Flames licked at his hospital gown, igniting the fabric. Stella turned away, unable to watch.

"Go." Her voice cracked. "I'd rather die alone."

He froze.

"Please..." Blood welled between her fingers as she clenched the glass shard. "Stay away."

The fire devoured nearby trees, heat blistering her skin. Time was running out. She had to escape before detonation—before everyone here perished.

Including the one person she never wanted to see again.