She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 309

Gavin turned—slowly, stiffly, as if his neck had rusted in place—and stared at the young woman standing in the center of the deck.

“Who… are you?”

His voice shook. His eyes trembled, overloaded by what he was seeing.

Loyce strolled toward him at an easy pace. Around her, the raiders hit the deck and started slaughtering Gavin’s crew. Gavin’s men weren’t sailors. They weren’t trained fighters. They were opportunists with guns and no conscience—and they folded under real violence.

Automatic fire stitched through them. Bodies fell. Blood spread.

As Loyce closed in, Gavin’s courage evaporated. He scrambled away on hands and knees, then lurched up and ran.

Without anyone backing him, he was nothing. Loyce slipped past his wild, panicked shots, crossing the chaos as if bullets and screaming were weather, and followed him.

Gavin slammed into the game room and burst through the door. He spun to lock it—

A shoe wedged in the gap. A plain, old-fashioned leather shoe, stopping the heavy door like it was weightless.

Loyce slid inside, silent as smoke. She’d dropped the “victim” act, but she was still wearing the same mismatched, ordinary clothes, making her look even more unreal—like something that didn’t belong anywhere lit.

The door shut behind her, sealing out the gunfire, explosions, and howling voices outside. Inside was dim and suffocating, the air tainted with cigar smoke, booze, and a thread of blood. Only Gavin’s breathing remained—ragged, loud, like a broken bellows.

“Why run?” Loyce asked. Her voice was almost lazy, but every syllable landed clean in the empty room. “Now you know what fear feels like.”

She picked up a playing card from the table and flicked it between her fingers. The Ace of Spades caught the occasional sweep of white light from the searchlights outside, flashing like a blade.

Loyce said, “Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it can’t exist.”

Gavin edged sideways along the pool table, eyes locked on her. “Then let’s make a deal. If you’re here for revenge, it’s still about money, right? I’ll give you everything. Let me handle the kids first, then all the cash is yours. If it’s not enough, get me to shore and I’ll get more. Name your price.”

“For money?” Loyce’s tone cooled. “Not just money.”

She noticed his hand creeping toward a cue stick behind him. She didn’t stop him. She only tapped the table lightly, once, twice. “I don’t make money off the elderly or children. And I don’t profit from killing people who shouldn’t die.”

She wasn’t a saint. But she wasn’t Gavin.

Gavin’s fingers closed around the cue stick. He stopped moving, and tried to cover his last gamble with accusation. “Oh yeah? Then what’s this—your morality? You arm pirates. You give them weapons so they can rob ships. They follow you. They kill innocents too. What is that, huh? Hypocrisy?”