The woman across the aisle—the woman whose ghostly presence had haunted my sleepless nights for six painful years—sat trembling under the harsh overhead lighting.

I didn't wait for the flight attendants. I carried Lila in one arm and grabbed Elena’s wrist with my free hand, dragging her past frightened passengers out into the rain-slicked jetway.

"Luca, stop! Where are you taking us?" Elena cried out, struggling against my grip as we entered the crowded terminal.

"Somewhere safe," I snapped, pulling out my encrypted satellite phone. I dialed my chief of security, Viktor, before she could protest further.

"Boss?" Viktor answered on the first ring, his tone sharp. "We lost your plane's tracking for twenty minutes. Are you safe?"

"I’m alive. Send four armored Suburbans to Newark, Gate B12. Full tactical security. And Viktor?"

"Sir?"

"Notify the safehouse in Upstate. We have high-priority cargo. If anyone asks, I was never on this flight."

I hung up and turned to Elena. Rainwater dripped from her dark hair, clinging to her pale cheeks. She looked exhausted, haunted, and terrified—not of the storm, but of me.

Lila peeked out from behind my neck, holding onto my lapels. "Mr. Secret-Man... why is Mommy crying?"

My expression softened for a fraction of a second as I looked down at my daughter. "Because your mother and I have a lot of lost time to make up for, sweetheart."

Suddenly, three men in matching black trench coats moved swiftly through the terminal crowd, their eyes locked onto Elena and Lila. I recognized the subtle stance immediately—concealed firearms, tactical posture.

Vincent’s men.

They already knew.

"Luca..." Elena gasped, noticing them too. She shrank back in terror. "They tracked my flight. I thought I threw them off in Chicago!"

"Stay behind me," I commanded, stepping in front of them both. The cold, ruthless killer that New York feared flared back to life beneath my suit.

One of the men reached inside his coat.

Before he could draw, I pulled Lila behind my back, lunged forward, and slammed the lead attacker into a concrete pillar. The sound of cracking bone echoed over the noise of the terminal. I stripped the weapon from his hands in one fluid movement and leveled it at the remaining two operatives.

"Tell Vincent," I snarled, my voice dripping with venom, "that if he comes within ten miles of my daughter again, I won't just destroy his empire. I will erase his name from history."

The men backed away into the screaming crowd as panic erupted around us. Sirens wailed in the distance.