“Rest up. If you need anything, you can call for a maid with the push of a button. When you’ve gotten enough rest, look around.” Those were Ezekiele’s instructions as he helped Lucia into one of the rooms. A smile appeared on his face as he remembered the shock on Lucia’s face when they got into the private elevator that led up to the Penthouse. “How are you able to afford this?” Lucia had asked with an incredulous tone, making Ezekiele laugh. What he didn’t mention to her was that not long after coming back to Oakheart City, he’d bought the company that owned the skyscraper, therefore giving him ownership of a number of buildings. Later, he would make her privy to all these things, but not now. This was only the beginning of what was to come. “I have some business to attend to, but if you need to go anywhere, there’s a phone right there.” Lucia looked in the direction Ezekiele pointed at, and sure enough, there was a landline seated on the desk. “Any of the numbers will connect y

A long time had passed since Ezekiele did any kind of undercover work, but here he was again. After leaving instructions with Lupo to keep an eye on Lucia and inform him if anything happened, Ezekiele set out for Maple City. Chris had given them all the information he had about the student who was allegedly behind the kidnapping of his classmates, as well as his Police Chief father, who kept his son’s misdeeds a secret. Over the years, Ezekiele had had to adopt a number of personas, but it was his first time going in as a teacher. This time, he was going in as a recently divorced teacher who moved to a new city for a fresh start. With a complete change of wardrobe and hairstyle, Ezekiele was certain that even his mother wouldn’t be able to recognize him. “Mr. Carrell, you’re recently divorced, right?” The principal of the school was a woman in her mid-thirties, and ever since Ezekiele arrived, she’d been beaming at him. Ezekiele, acting as Steve Carrell, nodded lightly, returning

After the police came and took the student’s body away, the whole school fell into a somber mood. This was the first time a body of one of the disappeared students had turned up. Before, they could lie to themselves by saying the students who disappeared ran away from home, but now, they weren’t so sure. Before class began, Chris asked to meet Ezekiele at the back of the school. The teenager was panicking so he paced around. “He’s killing people now. What’s your plan?” Ezekiele didn’t answer and stared at Chris until he frustratingly came to a stop. “Do you not have a plan? Are you going to play teacher until Cassey dies?”“I won’t let that happen,” Ezekiele said before returning back to the class. The students were less mellow than they usually were. Lance Howard, on the other hand, was another story. The smiles on his face throughout the day were bright, seemingly not noticing the sadness of the others. This time too, Lance stuck around after class and came to find Ezekiele in the

“Dad says I get to keep you if you come over.”As soon as Ezekiele heard those words, he reached behind him, grabbed onto the gun in Raya’s hands, and pointed it on her. The whole thing took three seconds, tops. Now Ezekiele had the chance to take a closer look at her. A stunned expression adorned the girl’s face. He was right in thinking she was young. She bore a striking resemblance to Lance and looked about the same age too. Twins maybe. Before speaking, Ezekiele took the gun away from her. “Are you alone in the house?” His eyes darted around the room to make sure that he didn’t encounter any more surprises. “Where are the students?”Raya must not have been expecting Ezekiele to turn the tables on her because a deep pout appeared on her face. “I’m innocent.”“Innocent? We’ll see about that. Where are the captives?” When he saw that Raya wasn’t planning on being forthcoming, Ezekiele raised the gun in his hand and aimed it at her. “Tell me or I’ll really shoot.”Rather than move,

“Have you heard back from the Hautings?”In a lavish home office, a man with a full head of grey hair sat at his desk, reading the news on his computer. Standing in front of him was a man, balding in the middle of his head, and with age marks around his eyes. He was in his late thirties, but looked much older than his years. These two people were Micah and Abel Keatings respectively. Ezekiele’s father and brother. After Ezekiele came out of prison, the first thing he did was change his last name so that none of his family members would be able to find him, but before he was known as Ezekiele Moretti, he used to be known as Ezekiele Keatings. “I’m meeting with the first son of the family and my bride-to-be this afternoon,” Abel Keatings responded. “Hmm.” Micah Keatings made a nasally sound with his throat, not looking up from his computer, then said, “I hope you know this has to happen. For the sake of the family business, you have to make sure this deal goes through. Do everything