Novels by Raellye Len

The shockwave hit them like a physical blow. Glass shattered into dust, the roar of the explosion obliterating the screams of the board members. Tawanda felt his body fly through the air, the world turning into a blurred chaotic spin of concrete and fire. He slammed into the heavy mahogany table, the wood splintering beneath him, but his arms remained locked around Zanele. She was pressed hard against his chest, her hair smelling of smoke and the metallic tang of blood. The room was a furnace now, the ceiling sagging as structural beams twisted and shrieked in agony.He pushed himself up, his ears ringing with the sound of a thousand grinding gears. Smoke filled the office, thick and suffocating. Through the haze, he could see Tanaka near the elevator, pinned under a collapsed steel door. The man was coughing blood, his face a mask of ruin, yet he was still laughing, a wet and bubbling sound."You are a cockroach, Tawanda!" Tanaka wheezed, his voice bubbling with liquid. "You cannot k

The darkness swallowed Tawanda whole as he plunged into the abyss. He felt the cold earth slam into his back. The air tasted like scorched stone and wet gravel. He gasped, his lungs burning with the dust of the collapsing street. Every muscle in his body shrieked in protest, but the survival instinct that had kept him breathing for two decades was already firing. He pushed the heavy slab of concrete off his chest, his hands raw and bleeding. He looked around. The hole was deep, a hidden maintenance tunnel beneath the city. Faint light leaked from a rusted pipe overhead. He scanned the darkness and heard a ragged, wet cough nearby. "Zanele?" he croaked, his voice cracking. "I am here, you idiot," she whispered, her voice trembling but alive. He crawled toward the sound, his hands feeling through the mud until he found her. She was wedged between two rusted support beams, her dress ruined beyond repair, a smear of dirt covering her beautiful, terrified face. He pulled her into his a

Tawanda threw himself to the left just as a spray of bullets turned the mahogany desk into a shower of splinters. He grabbed Thabani by the back of his expensive suit and dragged him behind a reinforced steel filing cabinet. The air was thick with the smell of cordite and the sharp tang of ozone from the shattered electronics. Zanele had dived behind a leather sofa, her phone still clutched in her hand, her eyes wide as she scanned the room for a weapon."Who the hell are they?" Thabani screamed, his voice cracking with pure, unadulterated cowardice. He was clawing at his own collar, gasping for air like a fish on a pier. "They are the people who own your father’s debts!" Tawanda hissed back. He pressed his back against the cool steel, checking the magazine of his stolen handgun. He had four rounds left. Four rounds to take out a professional hit squad that looked like it had been carved out of granite. One of the soldiers stepped forward, his boots crunching on the glass. He levele

The cold mud pressed into Tawanda’s face as he scrambled to his feet at the bottom of the ravine. Above them, the forest canopy filtered the faint glow of the city lights and the harsh searchlights of the police helicopters buzzing like angry hornets. He grabbed Zanele’s arm, hauling her up from the tangled roots. She was shivering, her expensive heels long gone, leaving her barefoot in the freezing muck. "My hair is ruined, my dress is shredded, and I think I lost a lung somewhere back on that hill," she wheezed, wiping a smear of grime from her forehead. She looked at him, her eyes flashing with a manic, dark humor despite the desperation of their situation. "If we die here, I am going to be extremely annoyed."Tawanda let out a short, jagged laugh. He pulled her against the damp earth wall of the ravine, pressing a finger to his lips. "You look like a disaster," he whispered, his voice vibrating with a dangerous thrill. "But honestly? You have never looked more beautiful than you

Tawanda didn't answer. He dove into the tall, damp grass, dragging Zanele with him as a second shot pinged off the stone gate behind them. The forest was a black wall, silent and predatory. Whoever was in those trees wasn't a Mthembu lackey. This was cleaner, colder work. "Stay low," Tawanda hissed. He pressed his back against the cooling stone of the perimeter wall. His heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. Zanele clutched the thumb drive against her chest. Her dress was ruined, stained with soot and grass, but her eyes were sharp. "That sniper didn't save us because they like our faces, Tawanda. They wanted the drive.""Or they just wanted to make sure nobody left that house alive," Tawanda replied. He pulled the handgun from his waistband, the metal biting into his palm. "We move toward the street. The police sirens are getting closer. If we can reach the main road, we might make it."They crawled through the brush, the heat from the burning mansion at their b

Tawanda threw himself behind a heavy marble pillar just as a second bullet shattered the crystal chandelier above him. Glass shards rained down like diamonds, slicing through the air and biting into the polished floor. Zanele followed, her dress tearing as she slid across the debris. The ballroom had dissolved into absolute pandemonium. Tuxedoed men and women in evening gowns scrambled over each other, screaming and abandoning their dignity to get away from the gunfire."Get down!" Tawanda barked, grabbing Zanele by the waist and pulling her deeper into the shadows of the stage. "I am down!" Zanele shouted back, her breath hitching as she scrambled to retrieve her phone from the floor. "And if we survive this, I am officially retiring from reporting. This is a disaster!""It is a promotion," Tawanda grunted, his eyes scanning the chaos for the shooter. He saw the police officers return fire toward the shattered glass doors. The rhythmic pop of their service pistols sounded weak again