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.
Read
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.
Read
Chapter: Ch 123. Titan vs. the God of DeathThick concrete dust danced through the air of the twentieth-floor corridor, illuminated by the glow of shattered neon lights and the sparks bursting from dangling electrical cables. The stench of ozone and purple chemical fluid leaking from broken containment tubes burned at the nostrils, creating an atmosphere that felt more like a laboratory of madness than a mafia headquarters.Eduardo stood slightly hunched.The cracked skin on his face released increasingly dense streams of corrosive black vapor. Across from him, Project Titan stood motionless, unfazed despite the fact that its colossal war hammer had just been crushed by Eduardo's left hand.GROOOOAAAARRRR!The Titan roared. Machine components and modified vocal cords merged into a frequency that rattled bone itself. The red lens embedded in its armored face rotated, locking onto Eduardo's position."Target... unstable."Eduardo's metallic voice echoed from deep within his chest without his lips moving.[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: COM
Last Updated: 2026-06-20
Chapter: Ch 122. Five Chairs of FearOne hundred meters beneath the burning city of Rome, a soundproof bunker known as the Sanctuarium trembled violently.In the center of the circular chamber, blue light from dozens of massive monitors reflected across the surface of a bulletproof glass table. Five old men, the absolute rulers of the deadliest criminal network in Europe, sat in their towering leather chairs.Yet not a single one of them looked like a king tonight."Vanya! Look at Sector Four's monitor! That's... that's not even human anymore, goddammit!" Pierre, the Don of Marseille, shouted while pointing at a screen displaying piles of Iron Guard corpses scattered throughout the main corridor.The hand holding his cigar shook so violently that ash spilled across his expensive Brioni suit.Vanya, the giant from Russia, stood frozen.His eyes, usually cold and unreadable, were now filled with a terror he had never experienced, not even when he had been surrounded by soldiers in Siberia."I told all of you... don't wake
Last Updated: 2026-06-19
Chapter: Ch 121. Meteor Shower Over the Eternal CityThe dawn sky above Rome was suddenly split apart by a streak of black fire stretching across the horizon, as if the heavens themselves had just been torn open by the hand of an invisible giant.It wasn't a meteor.It wasn't a ballistic missile.It was Eduardo.Or at least, what remained of the man once known as Eduardo.BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!The impact shook the foundations of the ancient city.Piazza della Mafia, the heavily fortified plaza standing before The Commission's headquarters and guarded more fiercely than any location in Europe, exploded outward. Thirty centimeters of asphalt shattered instantly, turning into fine dust and razor-sharp debris that blasted through the air in every direction.A crater three meters deep formed in an instant, releasing thick black steam that reeked of sulfur and chlorine.At the center of the boiling smoke, Eduardo slowly stood.His black tactical suit had completely vaporized, leaving behind skin that resembled cracked porcelain with pulsing black l
Last Updated: 2026-06-18
Chapter: Ch 120. Declaration of DeathThe heart of Rome lay frozen beneath a bruised purple dawn sky.Piazza della Mafia, a civilian-forbidden plaza that served as the front yard of The Commission's headquarters, was now completely devastated. White smoke billowed from a massive crater nearly ten feet deep, created by Eduardo's meteor-like landing.Around the rim of the crater, hundreds of elite Iron Guard soldiers stood in rigid combat formation. They wore anti-ballistic polymer armor capable of withstanding grenade blasts, carried state-of-the-art assault rifles, and were supported by two armored vehicles whose cannon barrels remained locked on the center of the smoke."Target detected inside the crater! Awaiting orders!" the Commander shouted through his helmet's communication system.Ssssssss...A strange hissing sound emerged from the center of the smoke. The sharp stench of sulfur and chlorine burned the nostrils of every soldier present.Slowly, a silhouette stepped out from the cloud of dust.Eduardo no longer loo
Last Updated: 2026-06-17
Chapter: Ch 119. The Journey to RomeThe twin turbines of the Gulfstream G650 private jet purred smoothly as it sliced through a sea of black clouds at thirty thousand feet.Inside the cabin, lined with lambskin leather and perfectly polished mahogany, the silence felt so dense it was as if the air itself had turned to lead. The dim cabin lights reflected off a crystal glass filled with Macallan 1926 whiskey, a drink expensive enough to buy an entire city block. Yet to Eduardo, the liquid was no different from cold water.Eduardo sat in the captain's chair, staring out the window.His reflection in the glass looked like the ghost of a future that had gone wrong.His hair was completely white. His skin was cracked like drought-stricken earth that had not felt rain in years. His pitch-black eyes seemed to swallow every trace of light that entered the cabin."So how's it feel, Grandson? Sitting on the highest throne in the sky, but not even remembering why you got on this plane in the first place."Grandpa's voice came from
Last Updated: 2026-06-16
Chapter: Ch 118. Selling His Soul (Again)The armory beneath Sector Five no longer smelled of gun oil and dry gunpowder. Now, the room smelled like a contaminated operating theater, metallic with blood, sharp with disinfectant, and laced with the sulfurous stench seeping from Eduardo's pores. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered erratically, casting long shadows that looked like monsters crawling across the concrete walls.Eduardo stood in front of a steel rack filled with tactical weapons.His hand, now missing one finger and left with only four intact digits, brushed the barrel of an HK416 assault rifle before he immediately pulled away. The weapon felt absurdly light, almost like a plastic toy in the grip of hands now flooded with concentrated death energy."I don't think bullets are gonna do much for you anymore, Ed," Belerik's voice came from behind him, his wheelchair creaking softly across the cold floor.Belerik rolled closer, looking ten years older than he had a day ago. His eyes were red, not only from lack of
Last Updated: 2026-06-15
