Midnight Driver: Five Stars or Die
Los Angeles, the City of Angels... fallen.
Beneath the glow of Hollywood lights and the eternal gridlock of the I-405, there is a world that moves in silence. Raymond Vance is not an ordinary rideshare driver. He is a Ghost Driver, available only through the RideShare app’s Dark Mode between 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.
The rules are simple and absolute:
Don’t ask.
Don’t look back.
Change of plan equals ten times the fare.
That night should have been easy. Pick up a passenger in Downtown LA, drop them off in Santa Monica. Instead, the passenger who gets in is Leo, a ten-year-old boy with autism, clutching a military-grade encrypted tablet.
Seconds later, an armored SUV owned by a Private Military Contractor slams into the side of Raymond’s car. Leo is not just a child. He is the Master Key sought by Mexican cartels and corrupt California senators.
Dragged into a lethal conspiracy, Raymond is forced to push his Dodge Charger through the streets of California. There is no government support, no law. Only asphalt, gasoline, and bullets.
Tonight, there is only one choice: a five-star rating, or die on the streets of LA.
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Chapter: Ch 27. The Concrete LabyrinthNight in Chinatown was never truly silent. Under Level 4 lockdown, however, the remaining noise had thinned to the static hum of city loudspeakers and the distant thrum of helicopters circling overhead.Ray switched off the main headlight of his trail bike. He relied on the faint glow of red lanterns swaying in the night wind and the neon haze from restaurant signs that still flickered weakly, displaying Mandarin characters that looked like secret code in the darkness.Chinatown was a maze of concrete and red brick. Its alleys were narrow and twisting, often ending in dead walls or rusted emergency staircases. For police or mercenaries driving large vehicles, this place was a logistical nightmare.For Ray, it was protection.“Leo, check the sector ahead. Any heat signatures?” Ray asked. His voice was nearly drowned by the low rumble of the engine he kept idling quietly.Leo clutched his tablet tightly. Blue light from the screen reflected in his glasses and across his tense face.“Two
Last Updated: 2026-03-09
Chapter: Ch 26. The Locked CityThe concrete channel of the Los Angeles River stretched like an open wound through the anatomy of a dying city. Its slanted walls, layered with graffiti, reflected the roar of Ray’s dirt bike, creating echoes that seemed to chase them from every direction. Above them, the sky over Los Angeles was no longer black. It burned a murky orange, a blend of light pollution, smoke from downtown fires, and the sweeping beams of helicopters scouring the canal like the wrathful eyes of a god.Ray pushed the bike hard along the dry riverbed, swerving around stagnant pools of wastewater and piles of discarded tires. The wound in his arm burned now, each pulse of pain beating in rhythm with the engine’s revs. He felt Leo clinging tightly to his waist, the boy’s small fingers digging into his leather jacket until his knuckles turned white.“Mr. Ray! Up ahead!” Leo shouted, his voice nearly swallowed by the wind.Ray saw it. On the overpass spanning the canal, tactical units were fast-roping down, des
Last Updated: 2026-03-01
Chapter: Ch 25. The New RateThe sky along the eastern horizon of Los Angeles began to fade into a bruised gray-purple, a painful transition signaling that their night was nearly over. Ray brought the dirt bike to a stop beneath the shadow of an abandoned overpass on the edge of the warehouse district. The hiss of the overheated engine became the only sound in that isolated stretch of concrete.Ray dismounted stiffly. Blood had seeped through the bandage on his left arm, spreading into a dark red pattern across his leather jacket. Dizziness pressed against his skull, the cost of blood loss and fading adrenaline. He leaned against one of the bridge’s concrete pillars, trying to steady his shallow breathing.Leo climbed off behind him, his face looking ten years older than it should have. He glanced at Ray, then at Ray’s phone mounted on the handlebars. The Car Gow app was still active, displaying the coordinates in the middle of the Mojave Desert, now eighty
Last Updated: 2026-02-28
Chapter: Ch 24. A Brief Interrogation Dawn crept over the outskirts of Los Angeles, the air growing colder and sharper by the minute. Ray brought the stolen dirt bike to a stop in the shadow of a scrap container in an industrial waste yard. His breathing was heavy, each inhale slicing through his chest like a blade. The metallic scent of dried blood on his face and shirt mingled with the gasoline fumes rising from the still-hot engine.“Get off, Leo,” Ray ordered. His voice was hoarse, nearly a death whisper.Leo dismounted awkwardly, his legs trembling slightly as they touched the ground. He clutched his tablet as if it were his own heart. He watched Ray stagger toward one of the mercenaries Ray had dragged and tied behind the bike, a reckless move he had made while fleeing the warehouse to secure answers.The man in tactical gear lay facedown on a pile of discarded tires. He was still breathing, though shallowly, each breath punctuated by a gro
Last Updated: 2026-02-27
Chapter: Ch 23. Dead-End Alley The old warehouse felt like a vast concrete coffin. The scent of dust that had settled for decades was disturbed by the lingering heat from the tow truck’s diesel engine, which had sputtered earlier. Ray stood in the shadow of a rusted shipping container, regulating his breathing until it was nearly inaudible. His left arm, wrapped in bandages, was beginning to stiffen, but his fingers still gripped the handle of his Glock 17 tightly. “Leo, stay where you are,” Ray whispered into the small radio linked to Leo’s tablet. “They’re above you, Mr. Ray,” Leo’s voice trembled in Ray’s ear. “Their heat sensors are sweeping from the roof. They’re moving toward the vents.” Ray looked
Last Updated: 2026-02-26
Chapter: Ch 22. Damage The silence that settled after the SUV’s engine died felt more painful than the gunfire had. Beneath the massive span of the Sixth Street Bridge, heat shimmered from the warped hood, carrying the scent of scorched metal and the sickly sweetness of radiator fluid. Ray slumped against the torn driver’s seat and let his head hang for a moment. The adrenaline that had been hammering through his veins ebbed away, leaving behind crushing exhaustion and a throbbing burn in his left arm. He looked down at it. His leather jacket was shredded, exposing a deep gash from a .50 caliber fragment. Thick red blood seeped through, soaking into his shirt. “Damn it,” Ray rasped, his voice rough as sandpaper dragged across wood. He turned to
Last Updated: 2026-02-25
Requiem of The Godfather: Price of a Memory
Eduardo died as a loser on an old pier, beaten to a pulp for refusing to sell his wife’s honor. Yet an ancient artifact revived him through the System of Equivalent Exchange. Eduardo was granted the power to rule the criminal underworld, but at a horrifying price: every inch of power he seized had to be paid for with fragments of his own memories.
From his last ragged breaths, Eduardo built an empire. From the blood of his enemies, he forged luxury for the family he loved. But as he climbed the throne as Italy’s supreme Godfather, he realized a bitter tragedy. The wealthier his family became, the more they turned into parasites, ravenous for riches and indifferent to Eduardo’s body as it slowly hollowed out. Amid betrayals of blood and the cold crack of a sniper’s bullet, Eduardo must choose: to die as a man forgotten, or to pass his darkness into the right womb.
A blood debt can be repaid, but the price of a memory lasts forever.
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Chapter: Ch 76. The Reaper's Black Eyes The air outside the Sector Five hideout warehouse felt charged, as if even nature were holding its breath at what stepped out from behind the heavy steel doors. The torrential rain from earlier had softened into a cold drizzle, yet the water that touched the ground seemed to avoid the path of Eduardo’s steps. Eduardo walked out. The white hair along the side of his head swayed faintly in the night wind. His skin, pale as funeral marble, made the black veins along his neck look like living curse marks. But the most horrifying thing was his eyes, two pitch-black voids without pupils or irises, only pure darkness that seemed capable of swallowing the light around them. “Gentlemen, we’ve got a target exiting. White hair, no firearm. Looks like the boss,” a Vladimir scout whispered from behind a cluster of concrete across the street, speaking into his radio. Inside Eduardo’s head, the voice rang like a shout. Not because of its volume, but because the system in his brain was
Last Updated: 2026-05-06
Chapter: Ch 75. Death Contract Eduardo stood motionless before a large cracked mirror in the corner of the meditation room. The exposed bulb above him flickered, as if even the current feared touching whatever was being created beneath its light. Eduardo stared at his reflection, but he no longer recognized the man staring back. The hair at the sides of his head, once jet black, had turned completely white. It was a pale, lifeless white, like bone buried for too long. His skin had lost all human warmth, becoming as cold and colorless as funeral marble. But the most horrifying part was his eyes. His pupils and irises had fused into a single, solid black void, swallowing any light that tried to enter. Veins the color of pitch crept from beneath his collar, crawling up toward his jaw like the roots of something rotten. “Looking good, kid. You really look like a discount angel of death,” Grandfather’s voice echoed in his head, accompanied by the faint chime of a shattered hourglass. “Shut up
Last Updated: 2026-05-05
Chapter: Ch 74. Blood Oath The air in the underground clinic of Sector Five always smelled the same, a mix of sharp floor disinfectant, rusted iron from steam pipes, and the faint scent of death that never truly left. Eduardo sat on a plastic chair beside a medical bed. He still wore the same suit from the cannery, torn, scorched at the sleeves, stiff with dried blood. On the bed, Belerik lay pale as tracing paper. His right leg ended below the knee, wrapped in thick bandages already seeping a dark red stain. The heart monitor beside him beeped in a weak but steady rhythm. “You’re awake, Office Rat,” Eduardo murmured as he saw Belerik’s eyelids twitch. Belerik groaned softly. His eyes opened, struggling to focus on the mold-stained concrete ceiling. He tried to move, but a wave of pain slammed into him instantly. “Ed? Where... where are we?” His voice was hoarse, barely audible. “In our hideout. You’re safe.” Eduardo poured water into a plastic cup and held it to Belerik’s lips. Bele
Last Updated: 2026-05-04
Chapter: Ch 73. A Mind Held Hostage Rain in Sector Seven never felt refreshing. The water that fell from the dark night sky mixed with factory soot and chemical vapor, creating a sharp, acidic stench. Eduardo stopped his black SUV three hundred meters from the abandoned fish cannery complex. The massive structure of concrete and rusted steel looked like the carcass of a sea monster stranded in the darkness. "Freya, you in position?" Eduardo whispered into the radio. "I’m on top of the old grain silo. Four hundred meters out. I’ve got visual on the side gate and the second-floor windows," Freya replied. Her voice was steady, though there was a slight catch in her breathing between words. "Ed, you should know... my stomach’s really not cooperating tonight. But don’t worry, my aim won’t miss." "Hold out a little longer, Freya. After this, you’re on full rest," Eduardo said. He glanced at the passenger seat. Gord was checking the magazine of his assault rifle, his face more serious than usual. No jokes about
Last Updated: 2026-05-03
Chapter: Ch 72. The Wolf at the Front Door The city lights beneath the Sark Tower penthouse glowed like embers ready to explode. Eduardo stood on the balcony, letting the harsh wind strike his face. There was no longer the sweet scent of Emily’s perfume or the sound of Chloe’s whining. Only the faint smell of gunpowder carried on the air, and a silence that felt like a second skin. "Boss, you really blocked all her cards?" Gord stepped out from the glass doors, holding an FN SCAR assault rifle. "Belerik said Emily was screaming your name over the phone so loud the server lines almost overheated." "I don’t have time to deal with parasites, Gord," Eduardo replied without turning. "Vladimir has moved into the logistics district. That means he’s already on our front porch." Gord grinned, revealing his uneven teeth. "Good. I was getting bored waiting. The boys are itching to pull the trigger. Only problem is... our ammo’s still tight because of that Swiss villa." Suddenly, an explosion thundered from the sou
Last Updated: 2026-05-02
Chapter: Ch 71. Long Distance Betrayal The air in Sector Five’s control room felt heavy, as if the concrete walls were closing in on them. Eduardo sat in his leather chair, eyes fixed on the monitor displaying a series of high-resolution images captured by Belerik’s intel team in Switzerland. There, amid the poetic snowfall of Zermatt, Emily was laughing freely, a laugh she had not shown in the penthouse for a long time, her head resting on the shoulder of a young blond man in an expensive ski suit. Beep. Belerik slid to the next image. A Rolex Cosmograph Daytona wrapped around the blond man’s wrist. "Eighty thousand dollars, Ed," Belerik said, his voice hoarse with disgust. "Bought two hours ago at the Rue de la Gare boutique. Corporate credit card under the Elena Foundation. He didn’t even try to hide the transaction." Eduardo studied the image. He noted how Emily touched the man’s hand, how she looked at him with a spark that had long disappeared. He searched his chest, trying to summon jealousy,
Last Updated: 2026-05-01
