Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 343

Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

Jensen’s POV

The transport doors opened with a long, tortured groan

For a second, nobody moved.

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The vehicle had barely rolled to a stop inside Port Blackwood’s primary staging yard before the mechanical locks finally release allowing the heavy steel frame to swing outward into the freezing coastal fog.

The mercenary commander exploded out of the driver’s side almost immediately.

He stumbled onto the wet concrete, coughing violently as thick streams of green tinted smoke poured from the vents of his

respirator.

His hands were shaking so badly that he nearly dropped his tactical chest rig while trying to remove it.

“Dump the asset!” he shouted.

The panic in his voice was impossible to miss.

“Dump her now!”

He ripped the damaged gear from his body and threw it onto the dock,

“The engine is cooking itself alive! The filters are completely saturated! The kinetic shields are gone and every tracking line in the region knows where we are!”

His gaze swept frantically toward the fog-covered highway.

“If we stay here another minute, Blackridge snipers are going to turn this entire dock into a graveyard!”

I climbed out of the passenger cabin slower than I intended.

My legs nearly gave out the moment my boots touched the concrete.

The world swayed.

My throat felt like shattered glass.

Every breath scraped against bruised tissue left behind by Baron Blackridge’s hand.

I could still feel it.

The pressure.

The absolute certainty in those golden eyes when he nearly crushed the life out of me.

Even now, leagues away from the warehouse, the memory was enough to make my wolf recall deeper into itselt.

For the first time in my life, Funderstood genuine fear

Chapter-343 The Maritime Ledger

Jensen!”

The voice boomed through the fog.

I jerked my head toward the sound.

A massive figure stepped from the shadows beneath an old zinc-roofed storage terminal.

Captain Vance.

The man looked like he belonged to the sea itself.

Salt-stained canvas coat.

Weathered skin.

Old scars carving through his face like permanent roadmaps of violence.

A thick cigar rested between his teeth while twelve armed enforcers spread out behind him in a loose formation.

They weren’t soldiers.

They weren’t Pack warriors.

They were worse.

Men who sold loyalty to the highest bidder and slept just fine afterward.

Vance’s eyes traveled over my torn coat, my bloodied jaw, and the bruises covering my throat.

Disgust flickered across his features.

“The lady’s money just died,” he said bluntly.

He spat onto the concrete near my boots.

“Every account she used to pay us has been frozen.”

My stomach dropped.

“What?”

Vance pulled a satellite terminal from his coat pocket.

“Blackridge Pack shut down every pack tied to the Gunn Pack.”

His expression darkened.

“His trackers are faster than people said.”

The words hit me like another punch.

Loretta’s money was gone.

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Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

The Gunn Pack’s money was gone.

Every emergency line.

Every hidden reserve.

Gone.

“The money doesn’t matter,” I rasped.

My voice sounded awful.

I hated it.

I pointed toward the transport holding Natalie.

“Look at what I brought you.”

Vance followed my finger.

“The Frost female.”

“The Frost female?” I laughed harshly.

“No.”

I stepped closer.

“Not a Frost female.”

My heart pounded.

“The Frost female.”

“The primary Frost Scribe.”

I swallowed painfully.

Vance froze.

His cigar stopped halfway to his mouth.

The casual indifference vanished from his face.

Greed replaced it.

Pure greed.

An awakened Frost female wasn’t simply valuable.

She was priceless.

Her bloodline held records, vaults, ancestral maps, and lineage data worth fortunes beyond imagination.

Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

“Entire governments would kill for access to that kind of information.

Syndicates would start wars over it.

“She’s awake?” Vance asked quietly.

I nodded.

His eyes sharpened immediately.

“Is she restrained?”

“One silver cuff.”

The mercenary commander answered before I could.

He was already working a hydraulic wrench into the transport locks.

“The gas didn’t suppress her.”

The admission made several syndicate guards shift uncomfortably.

“She’s still processing everything around her.”

The commander wiped sweat from his forehead.

“If you don’t get her below deck immediately, her husband is going to turn this harbor inside out.”

Vance’s expression hardened.

I grabbed his sleeve.

My dignity disappeared hours ago in that warehouse.

At this point, survival was all that mattered.

“He’s behind us.”

The words left me in a rush.

“Less than a league.”

Vance looked down at my hand.

I tightened my grip.

“Please”

The word tasted like poison.

“Take the contract.”

His eyes narrowed.

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Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

“He killed half my trackers without slowing down.

I swallowed.

“He isn’t coming to negotiate.”

Vance yanked his arm free.

The dismissal stung more than I expected.

He turned toward his men.

“Move the cargo.”

Instantly, the dock exploded into motion.

“Bring the pneumatic lift.”

“Secure berth four.”

“Get the ship moving.”

His voice carried across the harbor like a hammer.

“We leave before sunrise.”

Two hydraulic lifts were rolled toward the transport.

The rear doors finally opened.

And for the first time since leaving the warehouse, Natalie appeared.

Silence swept through the dock.

Even the mercenaries stopped talking.

They stared.

stared.

She was still seated in the reinforced chair.

Still restrained.

Still captive.

Yet somehow she looked like the only person on the dock who wasn’t afraid.

The coastal wind lifted strands of dark hair around her face.

The fluorescent harbor lights reflected in her eyes.

My

stomach twisted.

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Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

She wasn’t looking at me.

She wasn’t looking at Vance.

She wasn’t looking at the rifles pointed at her.

She was studying everything.

The cranes, the guards… Every detail.

Like she was sitting comfortably inside an office instead of being kidnapped.

A chill slid down my spine.

She already knew something I didn’t.

And somehow that terrified me more than Baron Blackridge did.

Natalie’s Pov

The moment the doors opened, I knew exactly where we were.

The air told me before my eyes did.

The sulfur and industrial pollution of the valley had vanished completely.

In its place came salt.

Ocean water.

Port Blackwood.

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I recognized it instantly.

The harbor existed outside most official jurisdictions, making it the perfect location for trafficking operations and illegal tragspor

routes.

Which meant Jensen wasn’t trying to hide.

He was trying to disappear.

The lift rolled beneath my chair as syndicate guaids surrounded me.

“Watch her.”

One of them sounded nervous.

“The light in her eyes hasn’t gone down.”

“Keep the cuff active,” another ordered.

“Don’t give her a chance to move.”

Talmost smiled.

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Chapter 343 The Maritime Ledger

They thought the silver cuff was the problem.

It wasn’t.

The silver burned every few seconds, sending sharp pulses through my wrist.

Pain flashed through my arm.

The information mattered more.

We crossed a loading platform.

Boarded a vessel.

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Entered through a service corridor.

The deeper they pushed me into the ship, the more information I gathered.

Every piece settled neatly into place.

They thought they were moving me farther from Baron.

In reality, they were narrowing his search.

By the time the elevat

2

reached the lower levels, I already knew this ship wouldn’t remain afloat much longer.

And when the steel door of Cell Twelve finally closed behind me, sealing me inside the cold darkness of the vessel’s deepest holding deck, I found myself thinking of Sean and Susie.

They were safe.

Baron would make sure of that.

Flynn would make sure of that.

The people hunting me had no idea what kind of mistake they had made.

I leaned back against the cold wall and listened to the engines begin their slow rumble beneath the floor.

The ship was leaving port.

Good.

Let them run.

Every mile they put between themselves and the harbor only made the circle smaller.

Chapter 344 The Coastal Rijpture