?Chapter 1453:


    Cade’s eyes snapped to the scene ahead, and fury surged through him so fast it stole the air from his lungs. The instinct of a soldier — carved deep into bone and blood — red awake like a beast unchained. His jaw tightened. Knuckles cracked as his fists coiled, ready to make the reckless thug regret ever drawing breath near this hospital.


    But before Cade couldunch forward, a blur of dark-green uniforms sliced through the corridor like a sudden gale. Dominic’s security unit. They moved as one — silent, sharp, and immovable — forming a living barricade between the thugs and the patient. Their presence seemed to drop the temperature in the hallway by ten degrees.


    Alex, who had swaggered forward just moments before, paused mid-step. He lifted his gazezily, sweeping over the soldiers with an arrogance so thick it almost had physical weight. Not a flicker of restraint. Not even a crease between his brows.


    He was, after all, a Cooper familyckey — and in Wront, that meant untouchable. Backed by power, Alex had long grown ustomed to walking through life with his chin up and consequences nowhere in sight.


    “Ah. Soldiers, huh?” he drawled, lips curling into a smirk. He twirled a knife between his fingers — casual, almost yful — its de catching the fluorescent light and throwing a cold gleam across his face. “Which military district do you belong to? Do you idiots even know who I’m working for?” His voice boomed down the corridor, arrogance dripping from every word. He shifted his weight, tapped a foot against the tile, and jerked his chin at his men. “Keep moving. Ignore them. Let’s see if these dogs even dare touch us.”


    His confidence was a shield, his arrogance curling around him like smoke.


    The soldiers exchanged tense nces, teeth grinding as their restraint strained under the pressure. They wanted to act — to crush the insolent thug in front of them — but military discipline was irond. No civilian could be harmed without Dominic’smand, even one who reeked of viiny.


    That was the iron rule.


    Yet righteousness burned fiercely inside them. Years of serving Dominic had forged their dedication not only to him, but to the people they had sworn to protect. And seeing the patient — vulnerable, barely out of surgery, surrounded by these men like a cornered animal — pushed the moral line into sharp relief.


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    “Sergeant,” the lead soldier murmured, his voice low but unwavering. “Permission to intervene.”


    Before the sergeant could respond, the soldier made his own decision.


    With one swift motion, he unbuttoned his regtion coat and let it fall from his shoulders into the hands of a stunnedrade. “Hold this.”


    Now in nothing but a thin shirt, sleeves rolled up to reveal corded, powerful forearms, he stepped forward — a human barricade, immovable as stone.


    “I’m just a passerby right now,” he said, his voice steady andmanding. “But a passerby cannot stand idle in the face of injustice.” He positioned himself between Alex and the bed, his eyes softening briefly as they met Chris’s — pale, fragile, watching from the pillow. “Do not worry,” the soldier said, the words carrying a quiet, unshakable resolve. “I will not let these men take you.”


    Something shifted in Chris’s otherwise indifferent gaze — a flicker of unspoken emotion, a tightening in his chest.


    “Watch out,” he whispered — perhaps already toote.


    Alex’s eyes sharpened, shing with lethal intent. He cared nothing for honor, codes, or the loyalty of other men. Anyone who stood in his way was a target.


    Swoosh. A silver streak cut through the air. The dagger in Alex’s hand struck like a serpent, the de kissing the soldier’s throat and drawing a thin, precise line of blood.


    “Don’t move,” Alex hissed, leaning close enough that his breath hit the soldier’s cheek, spit flying with every word. “I work for the Cooper family. This is none of your concern. Leave now, or I will make tonight a massacre.”


    His threat dripped venom.


    The soldier went rigid — shock and disbelief flickering through him. He had not anticipated this. The thug moved with lethal precision, with the practiced ease of someone who had left a trail of broken men in his wake. Alex was not merely bold. He was dangerous.


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