Chapter 5 - The Cabin in the Woods
🖤 THE SHADOW KING’S WEAKNESS: "YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE I TRUST."The estate in Northern Wisconsin was a fortress disguised as a luxury lodge. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of dense pine forest and protected by a high-voltage fence, the lakefront cabin was completely isolated from the outside world.
Two weeks passed. The snow fell thick and heavy, burying the world in a silent blanket of white.
Inside the cabin, the dynamic between the three of them began to change. Away from the pressure of his empire, Landon was different. He didn't wear suits; he wore heavy flannel shirts and dark jeans. He chopped wood in the morning, his broad shoulders shifting under the fabric, while Mave watched him from the kitchen window, a strange warmth blooming in her chest that had nothing to do with the roaring fireplace.
They cooked together. Mave taught June how to bake her mother’s recipe for cinnamon rolls, filling the massive kitchen with the scent of sugar and yeast. Landon would sit at the island, watching them with a quiet, intense focus.
"You're good with her," Landon said one night, finding Mave sitting on the porch overlooking the frozen lake. The temperature was below freezing, but Mave was wrapped in a thick wool blanket, watching the stars.
"She’s a good kid," Mave said, not looking at him as he sat down on the wooden bench beside her. "She just needs to know she’s allowed to be vulnerable. You spend so much time trying to make her strong that you forget she’s only fifteen."
Landon let out a long breath, his breath turning to mist in the cold air. "When our parents died, the vultures descended immediately. The Varga family tried to seize our shipping lines within forty-eight hours. I had to become a monster to keep them alive, Mave. If I show a single moment of weakness, my enemies will use it to tear down everything I built."
"And what about you?" Mave turned her head to look at him, her eyes searching his sharp features. "Who protects the monster?"
Landon didn't answer for a long time. He reached out, his large, calloused hand gently catching a stray lock of hair that had blown across Mave’s face. His touch was electric, sending a shiver through her body that had nothing to do with the winter wind.
"I’ve spent my whole life surrounded by people who want something from me," Landon whispered, his gray eyes dark with an intense, sudden heat. "My money, my power, my fear. But you... you broke open a locked door for a stranger without knowing who she was. You took a bullet for my sister when you could have run. You don't want my empire, Mave. Why are you still here?"
"Because I promised her I wouldn't leave," Mave said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "And because... because for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."
Landon leaned in close. His lips were just inches from hers. The tension between them was a physical thing, a wire pulled so taut it was ready to snap. For all her life, Mave had felt invisible—too big, too poor, too ordinary. But under Landon’s intense, burning gaze, she felt beautiful. She felt powerful.
"Landon," she breathed.
Before his lips could touch hers, a sudden, sharp red light began to flash on the porch ceiling.
Weeee-woooo-weeee-woooo.
The cabin’s perimeter alarm screamed into the night.
May you like
Landon stood up instantly, his romantic intensity vanishing, replaced by the lethal coldness of the Chicago kingpin. He drew a black pistol from the small of his back.
"They found us," Landon said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register. "Get inside. Lock the basement door. Don't come out until I call your name."
