Page 37 of Hooked On Victor
Her mouth went dry.
“What’s inside?”
He hesitated.
Then spoke softly.
“No one knows for sure. But the rumors say it’s not just treasure. It’s history. Records. Names. Betrayals. Enough to destabilize legacies. Reignite wars. Rewrite what the world thinks it knows about the fall of the empire.”
He met her eyes, unflinching.
“I never wanted to open it. Never wanted to be the one who decided what to do with the past. But the people after me?”
He exhaled, voice breaking.
“They’ll burn the world down to keep it buried.”
Silence filled the car.
The rain softened to mist.
She felt the gravity of what he’d just given her settle in her bones.
Heavy.
Inevitable.
She licked her lips, tasting salt she couldn’t blame on the rain.
“You said we’re running toward something. Not away.”
He didn’t move.
But he nodded once.
Tight.
“Then maybe it’s time to stop running,” she whispered. “Maybe it’s time to find that vault.”
Victor blinked at her.
Like she’d said something unthinkable.
She watched his throat work as he swallowed.
“You’d go with me?”
Her answer was slow. Deliberate.
She reached for his hand where it rested on his thigh, fingers sticky with blood. She didn’t flinch.
“You said I meant something to you,” she murmured. “So let me mean it. All the way.”
He exhaled.
It sounded like he’d been holding that breath for a decade.
He huffed a broken laugh.
