Chapter 17 · Thirty Seconds to Fire

"Don't touch the key, Elena." Gabriel's hand closed over mine before I could turn it.

His palm was hot against my knuckles. Blood had soaked through the side of his shirt, dark and wet beneath my fingers. The vault console spat a sharp blue spark, and pain tore up my arm.

I bit down hard. "Get off me."

"Your blood is already in the lock."

"Then maybe it should have thought twice before choosing me."

The steel chamber shook under our boots. Somewhere beyond the vault door, alarms screamed through the fortress. Red light strobed across Gabriel's face, catching the cut along his cheek and the black fury in his eyes.

He held on tighter. Not enough to crush me. Enough to remind me he could.

"If you turn that key," he said, "the lock will force a full blood signature. It may burn your nerves out."

"And if I don't?"

His jaw flexed. "Julian gets the records."

That answer hit harder than the pain.

The vault held every transaction, every falsified debt, every transfer that had turned my family into collateral.