The Billionaire’s Secret Guardian

Chapter Seven: Shadows of the Past

The silence in the dimly lit safehouse was suffocating. Dust swirled lazily through the air, disturbed by their hurried entrance, and the faint hum of a distant highway was the only sound beyond the cracked windows. The stale scent of rusted metal and old oil filled the room, making it clear that no one had used this place in years.

Damian's pulse still thundered in his ears, his breath coming in short, controlled exhales as he fought to process the bombshell Elena had just dropped on him. His hands curled into fists, tension tightening his muscles.

Someone had tried to kill him.

And Elena had known all along.

"You should have told me sooner," Damian finally said, his voice tight with barely restrained frustration.

Elena leaned against the old workbench, arms crossed over her chest. Her expression remained unreadable, but there was something behind her eyes—something weary, something haunted.

"Would you have believed me?" she asked quietly.

Damian opened his mouth to argue, but the words caught in his throat. She had a point. Two years ago, he would have dismissed the idea entirely, chalking up the accident to nothing more than bad luck.

But now?

Now, with gunmen hunting them through the city and Elena moving like someone who had spent years running from ghosts, he knew better.

He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to focus. "Tell me everything," he demanded.

Elena studied him for a moment before shifting her gaze toward Caleb and Charles, who stood near the door, watching the conversation unfold with wary expressions.

Damian caught the silent exchange and gestured toward the door. "Give us a minute."

Caleb frowned. "You sure about that?"

"I'm sure."

With some reluctance, Caleb and Charles stepped outside, leaving Damian and Elena alone in the dimly lit space.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

Elena's fingers tightened around the strap of her duffel bag, and for the first time that night, he saw it—the weight she had been carrying, the exhaustion of years spent looking over her shoulder.

"I wasn’t supposed to be there that night," she finally admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.

Damian narrowed his eyes. "But you were."

She nodded. "And I saw something I shouldn’t have."

His chest tightened, the cold weight of dread settling into his gut. "What did you see, Elena?"

Her eyes darkened. "The accident… it wasn’t an accident, Damian."

A cold chill ran down his spine. He clenched his fists, trying to steady his breathing.

"Someone tried to kill you that night," she continued, her voice firm but filled with something else—guilt.

The words hit like a sledgehammer, knocking the air from his lungs.

His mind raced, replaying the events of that night—the sharp turn, the out-of-control skid, the sudden impact, and the suffocating darkness as the car plunged into the icy river.

He had almost drowned that night. He had barely survived.

And all this time, he had believed it was just a freak accident. A stroke of bad luck.

But now…

Now, everything had changed.

"Who?" Damian demanded, his voice sharp, deadly calm.

Elena hesitated. "I don’t know for sure. But I have a name."

Damian’s jaw tightened. "Then tell me."

She exhaled, her fingers flexing around the edge of the workbench as if bracing herself.

"Vance."

The name felt foreign on his tongue, but something about it sent a chill down his spine.

"Vance who?" he pressed.

Elena shook her head. "I don’t know if it’s his real name or an alias, but he’s powerful, Damian. Connected. He has resources, people willing to do whatever it takes to clean up his messes."

Damian stared at her, trying to read between the lines.

"And you've been running from him ever since?"

She swallowed hard. "For two years."

The weight of her words settled between them.

Two years.

Two years of hiding. Two years of silence. Two years of secrets.

Damian let out a slow, measured breath. "Why come back now?"

Elena hesitated. "Because they never stopped looking for me." Her voice was softer now, almost pained. She met his gaze, eyes filled with a quiet urgency. "And now… they know I found you."

A New Target

The realization hit Damian like a freight train.

They weren’t just after her anymore.

They were after him.

Again.

His mind worked quickly, piecing together the puzzle. If these people—whoever they were—had gone to such lengths to kill him before, they weren’t going to stop now.

Especially not if they thought he remembered something.

Damian clenched his jaw. "You should’ve told me sooner."

Elena let out a bitter chuckle, shaking her head. "Yeah? And what would you have done with that information?"

He stared at her, his expression unreadable.

"I wouldn’t have wasted two years living in the dark," he muttered.

Elena sighed, rubbing her temples. "I was trying to protect you, Damian."

"You didn’t," he said sharply. "They still came for me."

A beat of silence.

Then, Caleb and Charles burst back into the room, both looking on edge.

"We need to move," Caleb announced. "We’ve got a tail."

Damian straightened, all his frustration pushed aside in an instant. "How close?"

"Too close," Charles muttered. "There’s a black SUV parked two blocks down. Tinted windows. Engine running. No plates."

Elena’s expression darkened. "That’s them."

Damian’s blood ran cold.

They had already found them.

Options. He needed options.

"Do we fight or disappear?" Damian asked, slipping into the tactical mindset he had developed long ago.

Caleb adjusted the strap of his rifle. "We can hold them off, but we don’t know how many they’ve got watching the perimeter."

"Fighting isn’t an option," Elena said immediately. "Not here. Too many variables."

Charles nodded. "Then we vanish."

Damian turned to Elena. "Do you have another safehouse?"

She hesitated, then reached into her bag and pulled out a set of car keys.

"There’s a place," she said. "But we need to leave now."

Damian didn’t argue. He shoved his gun into his waistband and motioned for the others to move.

This wasn’t over.

Not by a long shot.

And whoever Vance was, Damian was going to find him.

And end this—once and for all.