<h4>Chapter 144: Chapter ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR: It Is Finally Over</h4>


    Kendrick’s POV


    My fist collided with the steel door for the tenth time, the vibration rattling my bones, but the door didn’t even dent.


    "Damn it!" I roared, the sound echoing through the underground hallway.


    I was losing it. The cold, calcted Kendrick ck that the business world feared was gone. In his ce was a man possessed by a single, agonizing fear, that I would never see Christy’s smile again.


    "Kendrick, stop! You’re going to break your hand before we even get to them!" Mason grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back.


    "I don’t care about my hand, Mason! She’s in there with a murderer!" I snapped, my eyes wild.


    Every second that passed felt like a drop of acid hitting my heart. I could see her face in my mind...pale, terrified, looking at me through that screen. I had failed her and let them take her right from under my nose, and the guilt was eating me alive.


    We had been trying to breach this room for nearly an hour. The walls were reinforced, the tech was high-grade, and Curtis had nned this exit perfectly.


    "Sir!" An officer came sprinting down the hall, breathless, clutching a pair of binocrs. "The surveince team just spotted a ck helicopter. It’s low-altitude, heading toward the cliffs across the river. It’s an extraction, sir... It has to be them!"


    The air instantly left my lungs in a sharp hiss.


    "The cliffs," Mason muttered, his face hardening. "There should be a maintenance tunnel that leads from the basement directly to the shoreline. They aren’t in the room anymore...they’re already outside!"


    "Move! Now!" I yelled.


    We scrambled out of the vi, the evening sun feeling like a mockery of the darkness in my chest. We piled into the military vans, tires screeching as we sped toward the riverbank. My heart was thudding against my ribs, a rhythmic chant of please be alive... please be alive.


    As we skidded to a halt near the edge of the river, I saw it.


    The helicopter was hovering, its rotors whipping the water into a frenzy. It was seconds away from touching down. If they got her on that, she was gone and I would never find her. She would just be a ghost, hidden in some corner of the world by a madman.


    Beside me, Kelvin didn’t wait for an order or ask for permission. He dove into the back of the military van and emerged with a rocketuncher, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated rage.


    "Kelvin, wait..." Mason started, but it was toote.


    Whoosh!.


    The missile streaked across the gray sky, a tail of white smoke marking its path. And a few secondster, the world turned orange.


    BOOM!


    The helicopter exploded in mid-air. The shockwave rattled the windows of our van, and for a second, I couldn’t see anything but fire. Debris rained down into the river, hissing as it hit the water.


    "Let’s go!" I screamed, jumping out before the van had even fully stopped.


    We sprinted toward the cliff’s edge, our boots crunching over gravel and then, the world stopped.


    Curtis was standing near the ledge, his face illuminated by the burning wreckage in the sky. He looked like a demon crawling out of hell. He had his arm locked around Christy’s neck, a silver handgun pressed hard against her temple.


    Zain was a few feet away, clutching a bloody shoulder, his eyes darting around like a trapped animal. The moment he saw us, he leveled his own gun at my chest.


    "Stay back!" Curtis screamed, his voice high and hysterical. "I mean it! One more step and I paint these rocks with her brains!"


    I froze and behind me, dozens of officers leveled their rifles, but no one dared to fire. Not with the gun pressed into her skin.


    "Curtis, look at me," I said, my voice dropping low. I forced my hands to stay steady, even though I wanted to rip his throat out. "It’s over, the helicopter is gone and there is nowhere left to run."


    "I don’t need to run!" Curtisughed, and the sound made my skin crawl. He looked at Christy with a twisted, sickening look of love. "If I can’t have her, Kendrick, then no one else can. You think I’ll let you take her back? You think I’ll let her go back to you? Never."


    "You’re a coward, Curtis," Kelvin yelled from my side, his thumb hovering over the trigger of his rifle. "The only ce you’re going is hell, and I’m the one who’s going to send you there."


    "Then we’ll go together!" Curtis shrieked. He looked at the cliff’s edge, then back at me. "Hell won’t be too lonely with her by my side."


    My heart stopped and I was sure that he wasn’t bluffing. He had reached the end of his rope, and he was taking my world down with him.


    "Zain, put the gun down," I said, shifting my gaze to Zain instead. "This doesn’t have to be your end, and you’ve been lied to. You think I killed your father? You think I’m the monster here?"


    "Shut up!" Zain yelled, his hand shaking. "You took everything! You killed him because you found out that I wasn’t really sick!"


    "No, Zain. Look at the facts," I said, taking a slow, cautious step forward. "Our mother killed him. She pulled the trigger in that room, and then she turned the gun on herself...I have the CCTV, Zain. I saw her face, she was extremely heartbroken, and she took him with her...Don’t die for a lie Curtis told you."


    Zain blinked, a flicker of doubt crossing his face, but then he curled his lip. "You’ll need a better lie than that, Kendrick."


    The standoff felt like itsted a century. The wind was howling, the fire was roaring, and my eyes were locked on Christy.


    She looked so small and fragile. But when our eyes met, I saw a spark of the woman I loved. She wasn’t just a victim...She was a fighter.


    I gave her a tiny nod.


    Christy immediately understood and didn’t hesitate. She gathered every bit of strength she had left and stomped her bare foot down hard on Curtis’s foot.


    "AGH!" Curtis yelped, his bnce shifting for a split second as the pain shot through him.


    In that fraction of a second, Christy dropped to the ground, tucking her head and rolling away from him.


    Pop-pop-pop!


    The police wasted time as three bullet wounds appeared on Curtis’s chest.


    His eyes went wide, the gun slipping from his fingers as he staggered back. He didn’t fall off the cliff. Instead, his knees buckled and he fell forward, crashing right on top of Christy.


    "NO!" Christy screamed, a sound that tore through my soul.


    Blood sttered across her face and soaked into her shirt as he slumped against her, his weight pinning her to the cold ground.


    I moved faster than I ever had in my life.


    I kicked the gun away from Zain, who immediately dropped to his knees and threw his hands up, the fight finally leaving him as the officers swarmed him...But I didn’t care about Zain.


    I reached Christy and shoved Curtis’s lifeless body off her. He rolled onto his back, his eyes staring nkly at the smoke-filled sky as he drew his final breath.


    "Christy! Christy, look at me!" I pulled her into myp, my hands trembling as I wiped the blood from her cheeks.


    She was shaking so hard I thought she might convulse. Her eyes were wide, zed with horror, as she looked at the man who had just died on top of her


    .


    "Kendrick..." she sobbed, clutching my coat like a lifeline. "He... he was going to... I was so scared. I thought I’d never see you again."


    "I’ve got you," I whispered, pulling her head into my chest and holding her so tight I could feel her heartbeat. "I’ve got you, baby. You’re safe and I’m never letting you go again...Never."


    I just held her and let her cry, my own eyes burning with tears. I refused to let fall in front of my men.


    The scene was a whirlwind of activity as Medics rushed over, Mason was barking orders to secure the perimeter, and Kelvin was standing over Curtis’s body, spitting on the ground before walking over to squeeze Christy’s hand.


    The police moved in, zipping Curtis into a ck body bag and just like that, he was really dead and gone forever.


    I stood up, lifting Christy into my arms. She was exhausted, her head leaning against my shoulder as the adrenaline finally began to fade.


    I watched as they loaded Zain into a cruiser and hauled the body bag away.


    I looked down at the woman in my arms and felt a peace I hadn’t known in days. I leaned down and whispered into her ear, my voice thick with emotion.


    "It’s over, Christy...It’s finally over."