All Chapters of BORN TO BE A MAN,FORCED TO BE A GANGSTER : Chapter 41
- Chapter 50
50 chapters
CHAPTER 41
THE NIGHT THE TRUTH ALMOST BROKE The house felt too quiet that night. It was so still, like the air itself held its breath. No sounds came from the streets outside. No creaks from the old floorboards. Just silence wrapping around everything. Selena sat at the edge of Griffin’s bed. She stared at his sleeping face, watching every small rise and fall of his chest. His breaths were slow and steady, like always. But deep in her chest, a fear grew stronger. The doctor had checked him that morning. He said Griffin’s body was healing well from the wounds. The cuts were closing. The bruises were fading. Yet the poison was different. It did not leave so easily. It stayed hidden inside him. It waited for a weak moment to strike again. Selena could not shake that thought. She reached out and brushed her fingers against his hand. His skin felt warm, but too still. “Come back to me fully,” she whispered softly. Her voice shook just a bit. “I need your eyes to be clear again. I need to hear y
CHAPTER 42
THE WAREHOUSE NOBODY DARED TO ENTER Elliot and Selena hurried fast through the dark. Guards stayed right on their heels, boots pounding the ground. Griffin’s wounded mind had flashed one final image. Not the deep forest. The old warehouse instead.Long ago, Griffin warned Elliot. Stay far from that place. He named it the graveyard of truth. Elliot shrugged it off back then. Now it all clicked clear. They burst outside into the open. Selena grabbed his arm light. Her whisper shook. “Why point us there? Of all spots?”Elliot swallowed down fear. His throat burned dry. “That night he got hurt badly. The attack started from there. He saw something huge.” Selena’s eyes stretched wide in the moonlight. “The betrayal? Those who set him up?” Elliot finished her thought sharply. “They tie straight to that warehouse. No doubt.”Into the CarGuards yanked car doors wide. Elliot clasped Selena’s hand firmly. They slid inside quickly. Fear twisted his gut hard. But his face stayed stone calm. Gri
CHAPTER 43
THE SHADOW IN THE DARK The cold air inside the warehouse changed. It felt thick now. Heavy like it breathed. Alive with secrets. Selena pressed close to Elliot. Her breath shook hard. She tried to hide the fear. But it showed in her eyes.“Elliot… someone stayed here,” she whispered. Voice cracked just a bit.He stepped ahead slowly. Flashlight held firm in his grip. The beam cut steadily through the dark. “Yes. Not long ago.”Dust lay kicked up in spots. Old boxes moved roughly. Footprints marked the floor clearly. Fresh ones. Not faded from weeks back. Someone watched. Or waited patiently in shadows.Checking the CornersElliot swung light left. The corner sat empty just cobwebs and rust. No threat hid there. He nodded to Selena. She took the right side carefully near the broken table. Wood cracked where Griffin had planned moves with his dad long ago. Memories hung thick.Then she stopped cold. The body went stiff.“Elliot,” she called. Barely sound. Breath held tight.He spun qui
CHAPTER 44
THE TRUTH GRIFFIN NEVER SAID Elliot didn’t speak for a long moment. The old warehouse door stood half-open behind them, the lights still flickering inside after the chaos they had witnessed. Selena stayed close to him, worried, waiting for him to breathe normally again.But Elliot wasn’t calm.He was angry.Silent.Focused.“Selena,” he finally said, voice deep and steady, “everything in that place… it wasn’t just torture. It was a message. Someone wanted us to walk in there and see exactly what they did to him.”Selena swallowed hard. “But why leave the place unlocked? Why leave the marks? Why leave the blood?”Elliot clenched his jaw.He already knew the answer.“Because they want me to follow the trail,” he said. “They want me to come for them.”Selena touched his hand. “Then they want a war.”He nodded slowly. “Yes. But not just any war. A personal one.”He walked back inside the warehouse. Selena followed quickly.Everything felt different now. No fear. No panic. Just purpose.E
CHAPTER 45
THE NIGHT SELENA SAW THE TRUTHElliot held the USB drive tight in his hand. It felt like the key to the entire war they were fighting. Selena stood nearby and watched him. She saw the anger building inside him. It was not loud or crazy. It was quiet and very dangerous.He put the USB into his pocket. Then he looked right at her with steady eyes.“We will not stop now,” he said firmly.Selena swallowed. Her throat felt dry. “I know that,” she replied softly.Elliot started to walk toward the warehouse door. But he stopped after a few steps. A feeling told him there was more to find. Maybe something Griffin had left behind. Or perhaps a trick from their enemies.He looked around the big empty space. The walls had rust spots everywhere. Old shelves leaned against them. Broken pieces of metal lay on the floor. Then his eyes stopped on one thing. It was an old locker. Dust covered it thickly. The door was open just a little bit.“Stay right behind me,” Elliot told her in a low voice.Selen
Chapter 46
THE MESSAGE THEY MISSEDTHE MESSAGE THEY MISSED Elliot slammed the warehouse door shut behind them. His chest tightened, filled with a mix of anger and worry he couldn’t shake. Selena’s breath came fast and heavy as she walked beside him. They were sure they had taken everything critical from the laptop and the USB stick. They believed the danger was left behind in the shadows of the warehouse.But they didn’t know the truth was hiding right in front of them, glowing softly on the laptop screen they had forgotten to close, still running quietly.Without a sound, a small notice blinked on the screen.The words appeared clearly: “GRIFFIN WAS NOT THE TARGET. ELLIOT WAS.”Seconds passed, and another message followed:“THE USB BELONGS TO THE TRAITOR.”No one noticed. Not Elliot. Not Selena. Not even the guards were posted at the doors.But someone else read every word.Soft footsteps echoed inside the empty warehouse. At first faint. Then slow and deliberate. Each step is measured and ca
CHAPTER 47
THE MAN BEHIND THE SILENT Elliot didn’t sleep a single second that night. His mind replayed the same troubling scene over and over the unread message flashing briefly on the laptop screen, the one he and Selena missed. The message felt like a trap now too cold, too still, too simple. Something was waiting in the shadows of that silence, hiding in the dark where they hadn’t looked.Beside him, Selena sat curled on the edge of the bed, knees hugged tight to her chest. Her breathing was shallow, body tense as a coiled spring. “Elliot,” she whispered, voice fragile and raw, “what if someone else has that USB stick now?”His jaw tightened, muscles bunching under the skin. “They do,” he said firmly, his voice low and heavy. “And they’re watching us. Waiting for just the right moment.”“For us?” Selena’s question was barely audible, thick with fear.Elliot’s nod was slow, deliberate. “For both of us.”Suddenly, Elliot’s phone buzzed sharply. He snatched it up. No name, no number appeared on
CHAPTER 48
THE SCARING TRUTHElliot pushed the heavy door open with his shoulder. Selena was right behind him. The warehouse felt colder than before but not because of the air. It felt cold because something bad had happened there, something recent.The guards quickly spread out. They looked into every corner and checked every dark shadow.Elliot stayed quiet. His mind kept going back to one strange line from the video on the USB drive:“You are the heir… but not the only one.”That sentence played over and over in his head like a slow, heavy drum.The phone call with Griffin was bad. He sounded defeated. Elliot wanted answers, or else he'd take revenge.Selena touched his arm to get his attention. “Elliot… look.”Something was different inside the warehouse.The table where they had left the laptop was now empty. No laptop. No USB drive. Nothing at all.Elliot stopped. His chest tightened. “Who touched it?” he asked in a low voice, almost a whisper.The guards looked confused and glanced at each
CHAPTER 49
THE MAN BEHIND THE MESSAGEThe room fell silent after the last recording stopped. No one spoke. Elliot’s jaw clenched tight. Selena held her breath. She stared at the laptop screen. It felt alive to her like something evil waiting to attack them.Elliot replayed Griffin’s last words in his mind. They haunted him. “If you are seeing this… someone close to you is not who you think they are.” The words repeated over and over, like a drumbeat in his head.Selena shifted in her chair. Her voice was soft but urgent. “Elliot… Griffin meant someone in this house. Someone right here with us.”Elliot said nothing. He stood frozen, eyes locked on the laptop. His chest felt heavy. He struggled to breathe normally.The USB drive sat on the table in front of them. It was the same one Griffin had hidden before he vanished. Maybe right before someone tried to kill him. The thought made Elliot’s stomach twist.Finally, Elliot spoke. His voice was firm. “We have to watch every single file on this. No s
CHAPTER 50
THE COST OF TRUTHSelena's heart was breaking. Griffin was alive, but being use against her willHe was in terrible pain. And the full truth was slipping away from them faster than they could chase it.Elliot slammed the safe-house door shut. He locked it not once, but twice, for good measure. “They’re moving quicker than we expected,” he said in a low voice. He started pacing back and forth across the worn wooden floor. “Griffin tried to warn us. He really tried his best.”Selena couldn’t bring herself to sit down. Her legs trembled like leaves in the wind, but she forced herself to stand tall. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her mind raced with images of Griffin’s face twisted in agony. “If he warned us,” she said, her voice shaky, “then why couldn’t he speak plainly? Why all the riddles?”Elliot stopped pacing and looked at her. He hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “Because of whatever they injected into him. It’s eating away at him from the inside out.” His voice droppe