Novels by Oscar

Chapter 8: Three weeks later, the city was still burning. Not literally. But the fallout from the gala had spread like wildfire. Victor Sterling's arrest had triggered a chain reaction — senators resigning, CEOs fleeing, judges under investigation. The news cycle couldn't keep up. Every day, a new name. A new crime. A new scandal. Amelia had been called to testify before a federal grand jury. She'd agreed. She'd also agreed to give interviews — her face on every screen, her voice on every station. She wasn't hiding anymore. Elena was running cleanup. Tracking down the remaining members of Sterling's network. Hunting them one by one. She didn't sleep much. Neither did he. And Adrian— Adrian was sitting in a cemetery. The grave was simple. A headstone. A name. Two dates. No flowers. No visitors. Just cold marble and silence. Michael Cole. Beloved Father. 1960–2024. Adrian had been here for two hours. He hadn't said a word. Finally, he spoke. "I'm sorry." The wind rustled thr

Chapter 7: Victor Sterling's estate made Kane's mansion look like a garden shed. It wasn't a house. It was a fortress carved into the side of a mountain, surrounded by sixty acres of private forest. Thermal cameras. Motion sensors. Drone patrols. A private security force that rivaled most national armies. And that was just what Adrian could see from the satellite images. "He's not a man," Elena said, spreading the photographs across the table. "He's a kingdom." Adrian studied the layout. Every entrance. Every exit. Every blind spot. There weren't many. "Kane was paranoid. Sterling is worse. He's been preparing for this his entire life." Amelia stood by the window, arms crossed. "So how do we get in?" Adrian was silent for a long moment. Then he spoke. "We don't." Elena looked up. "What?" "We don't break in. We don't attack. We don't do anything he expects." Adrian turned from the table. "Sterling has spent forty years building walls around himself. Security. Money. Power. H

Chapter 6: --- The plan was simple. Too simple, Adrian knew. But simple was all they had. Kane's estate sat on the edge of the city, a fortress disguised as a mansion. Twelve-foot walls. Motion sensors. Armed patrols every fifteen minutes. The kind of place that made men feel invincible. That was the problem with power. It made people comfortable. Sloppy. Adrian had spent six years studying men like Kane. They all had the same weakness — they believed their money could protect them from anything. They forgot that money couldn't stop a bullet. It couldn't stop a man who had nothing left to lose. "This is insane," Amelia said, staring at the blueprints spread across the table. "You're talking about walking into a death trap." "No," Adrian said. "I'm talking about walking into a death trap and walking out with Kane in handcuffs. There's a difference." "What difference?" "One of them ends with me dead. The other ends with him dead." Amelia shook her head. "You can't just—" "I c

Chapter 5: --- The safe house was a small apartment above a laundromat in the industrial district. No name on the lease. No record of anyone living there. The kind of place that didn't exist on paper. Adrian stood by the window, watching the street below. Amelia sat on the couch behind him, knees pulled to her chest, staring at the flash drive in her hand. "You kept this for five years," Adrian said without turning around. "I almost destroyed it a dozen times." Her voice was quiet. "Every time I thought about using it, I remembered what he did to the last person who tried." "And yet you kept it." "Maybe I was waiting for someone like you." Adrian turned. Looked at her. She wasn't crying. She wasn't trembling. There was something hard in her eyes now — something that had been buried for years and was finally starting to surface. "Before I use that file," he said, "I need to know everything. Every name. Every crime. Every person your father has destroyed. I need to know what I'

Chapter 4: --- Amelia Hart didn't look like the daughter of a monster. She looked tired. That was the first thing Adrian noticed. Tired and guarded, with dark circles under her eyes and a coffee cup clutched in both hands like a lifeline. She sat alone at a corner table in a small café downtown, a laptop open in front of her, a stack of papers beside it. She checked her watch. Then the door. Then her watch again. Waiting for someone. Adrian sat two tables away, a newspaper in front of him, watching her through the reflection in the window. He'd been there for an hour. She'd been there for forty minutes. She ordered one coffee. Black. No sugar. She didn't touch her laptop. She just sat there, nervous, scanning the room every few seconds. She's scared. Not of him. Of something else. Elena's voice crackled in his ear. "You're sure about this?" "No." "Then why are you doing it?" Adrian folded the newspaper. "Because someone has to." He stood. Walked to her table. She looked u

Chapter 3: --- The safe house was a condemned warehouse on the south side of the city. No windows. One entrance. Three exits. Adrian had chosen it for a reason. He sat in the dark, the ledger open on a folding table in front of him, a single lamp casting shadows across the pages. His mother was asleep in the corner, wrapped in a blanket, exhausted from crying. He'd brought her here because it was the only place he knew was clean. No bugs. No cameras. No eyes. She didn't ask questions. She just held him for ten minutes and then fell asleep. Adrian hadn't slept in three days. He kept reading the ledger. Every page was a nail in someone's coffin. Senator Marcus Kane had built his entire career on blood money. Weapons deals. Human trafficking. Assassinations disguised as accidents. And the worst part? Adrian had helped him. Six years ago, he was a weapon. Pointed at targets and fired. He didn't ask who or why. He just executed. It was only when he discovered Kane was selling info