Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 112

Wait For The Signal.

Sage

Morning comes slow, dragging light through the crack under the door. I’ve been awake for hours, counting heartbeats and waiting for the guards to do their first round. Naomi’s still slouched against the wall, eyes closed but not asleep. Nico is tracing something on the floor with his finger, possibly maps or numbers, as a way to keep his mind busy. The lock clicks. Two sets of boots, same rhythm as always. But when the door opens, only one man steps through. He’s tall, lean, eyes too sharp to be bored like the others. It takes me half a second to place him. Mikhail. We trained together once, back when we were both still pretending Yakov’s compound was a purpose instead of a prison. He was good, quiet, fast, loyal in the way that got you killed faster than hesitation. He doesn’t look at me right away. He sets the tray down, metal on concrete, the same grey slop and stale bread. Then he straightens and finally meets my eyes. For a moment, we stare at each other, two ghosts who survived the same nightmare and somehow ended up on opposite sides of it.

“Mikhail,” I say under my breath.

He exhales through his nose, almost a laugh, almost a sigh. “Still breathing, I see.”

“Barely.”

He shifts his weight, glances at the hallway, then steps closer. His voice drops low, just above a whisper. “Yakov’s coming.”

My pulse kicks. “When?”

“Tomorrow night. Midnight. He wants to see for himself what the ghosts have become.” His eyes flick toward Nico and Naomi, then back to me. “He’ll bring others. His personal guard. Twelve, maybe more.”

“Why tell me?” I ask, studying him. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be saying this.

Mikhail’s mouth twitches, almost a smile, but bitter. “Because I remember what it was like being you. And maybe, just maybe, I’d like to see him bleed before this is all over.” He steps back, careful not to make noise. “Don’t make me regret it.”

He turns, knocks once on the door, and the lock slides open again. Before he steps out, he looks at me one last time and murmurs, “Be ready.”

The door shuts. Silence,

Naomi whistles low. “You’ve got friends in low places, huh?”

“Something like that,” I mutter. My hands are shaking, but I hide it.

I turn to Nico, who’s already watching me with that sharp look that means he knows what’s coming. I keep my voice steady. “You heard him. Tomorrow night. Yakov. Twelve men, maybe more. Pass it on.”

Nico nods, subtly. He shifts the chain on his wrist, pretending to scratch, activating the earpiece. Static flares for a second, then fades as he starts whispering: details, times, the name of the contact. Arl and Conner will hear every word. I lean back against the wall and close my eyes, forcing my breathing to slow. We’ve got less than twenty–four hours before the monster walks back into the cage. This time, it will be the very last time he cages me.

Conner.

Nico’s voice crackles through the laptop speaker, low and broken by static. Ari’s bent over the table beside me, one hand gripping the

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12:03 Tue, Oct

Wait For The Signal.

mouse, eyes fixed on the line of digital coordinates she’s tracing on the map. The room smells like burnt coffee and gun oil; no one’s slept in twenty hours.

“Say that again,” I snap. “Who’s coming?”

“Yakov,” Nico whispers back. His voice is rough, tight with effort. “Tomorrow night. Midnight. He’s bringing twelve men, maybe, his personal guard, Armed. Mikhail, one of Sage’s old contacts, told her. He’s giving us a window.”

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Ari turns her head, eyes sharp. “He won’t kill them right away. He wants to make a show of it. He’ll bring his men in, walk the place like it’s his throne and show off his power.”

“That gives us time,” I say. “Not much, but enough.”

I move around the table, scanning the map, my finger tapping over the marked compound. “We’ll hit from three sides. Liam takes the north approach with a team. You and I hit the main road, draw the guards out. Once they’re exposed, we breach underground. We’ll have to move fast, no time for subtlety.”

Ari lifts her head, watching me. “And if it’s wired? Those tunnels were rigged years ago. They could still be.”

“Then we cut the power, and we take it dark,” I growl.

Nico’s whisper comes back, clipped and urgent through the speaker. “She says, don’t spook him. Wait until he is inside the building. When he’s exactly where she wants him, she’ll give the signal. Wait for that signal.”

The room goes flat for a beat. My hands tighten on the table so hard my nails hurt.

“You heard her,” I say, voice low. “No spooking. We do not start early.”

Ari doesn’t laugh; she nods like she’s filing the order into bone. “We hold. We stage. We get men in position so we can pounce the second she clicks.”

“Nico, keep that mic hot. If Sage says freeze, you freeze.” My voice is hard enough that the men lean in.

Nico’s reply is a ragged, “Copy.”

We kit up in a nearly holy silence. Belts clipped, mags checked, breaching charges strapped in velvet cases like instruments. Men move with quick, practised hands. Liam slaps my shoulder once, the kind of touch that’s both promise and warning. “We’ll be ghosts until the click,” he says. “We don’t give him a reason to look up.”

Outside, the evening pulls the world into a blue shadow. We ride to the staging point in two vans, engines quiet. Ari runs through a checklist twice and then a third time. Phones are off, comms on burn channels. Faces are set. Nobody jokes. The only sound is boots and the whisper of nylon. I picture Sage being calm, cataloguing, waiting. She’s the one who walked into that place; she knew what she was doing, what she was walking into, and she did it without an ounce of fear in her. The primary objective is to get our friend out. The secondary? Killing Yakov.

I pick up the radio and press it to my lips. “Hold until the signal,” I say, and the words feel both like an order and a vow. “We rush in when she gives us the green. No early shots. No wandering eyes. No one moves a fucking muscle until then.”

Nico’s voice, a thin thread through the static: “We’re ready. She’s ready. Wait for the click.”

We wait. The world narrows to a black clock and a bright, terrible promise, when Sage gives the signal, everything changes.

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12:03 Tue, Oct 21

Wait For The Signal.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I whisper to myself. “You’ve got this.”

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