I squeezed.My hand was like iron around his neck, holding him tight. I could feel his heart beating fast against my palm, like a scared bird trying to escape. “Say it again,” I whispered, my voice sounding rough. “Say his name. I dare you.”Hot blood from his beaten face smeared across my gloves. He was badly battered, but his eyes still had a glow in them.Then, he smiled. It was a slow, bloody grin.“Wait,” he whispered hoarsely. “You’ll want to hear this, Ethan.”I squeezed his throat harder until my knuckles turned white.“I know who is really behind all of this,” he choked out, his eyes pleading. “And I know why they chose your brother.”My anger didn't go away, it just froze. It felt like a heavy block of ice in my chest that made it hard to breathe. My fingers shook, but I didn't let go.“You’re lying,” I said, but I didn't even really believe my own words.I looked into his eyes to see if he was lying. I’ve spent my whole life figuring people out, and I could tell he was tel

“Quickly, we have to move,” I said. “ We don’t have much time.”The man crawled through the opening first, then suddenly stopped. Just as I stepped forward with Noah still slung over my shoulder, he suddenly turned back and raised a hand, blocking my path.“What is it?” I snapped.He looked at me, with seriousness in his eyes, not the mocking or arrogant stare I was used to.“Ethan,” he said quietly. “If we’re going out there… you’re going to need all the help you can get if you want to protect your brother while we try to escape.”I frowned. “What are you saying?”“I need a weapon.”For a second, I almost laughed.After everything he’d done, breaking into Noah’s house, holding a gun to my head, forcing me to jump from a burning building, now he wanted me to arm him?My grip tightened instinctively around Noah. Humans were unpredictable, just because he came back to save Noah or volunteered to throw the grenade didn't guarantee that he couldn't switch sides at any moment. This could

The worst part wasn't the blood or the mess we left behind. It was what this man knew. He knew things about Noah and me that he shouldn't have known. He had studied me so well that he was able to get into Noah’s house without me noticing. But it was even worse than that. He knew specific details about a secret mission I had never even written on paper. It was a ghost operation, a job I kept locked away in the darkest part of my mind. Some secrets are so dangerous that you can't even share them with your friends. They were dark and private, and they should have stayed buried forever. Knowing those things made him more dangerous than any weapon aimed at me, and right now, he was lying in the back of my car, bleeding on the floor. I had to get answers. I needed the real truth, and he was the only person left who could tell me. I felt a deep sense of doubt, that I couldn't wave off. What if this whole thing was a trick? What if the chase and our narrow escape were just parts of a

For the first time since he woke up, the smile on Yuri’s face completely disappeared. It was like someone had flipped a switch in his character. The smug look was gone, and the humor was no longer visible in his eyes. He stared at me for a long time, looking at my face as if he were weighing the importance of what he was about to say. Then he took a slow breath. “So,” he said quietly, “if I tell you... You’re going to go after him, aren’t you?” I didn’t say anything. He nodded to himself. “That means you never really left this life. You were just waiting around. You said you quit, then your brother gets hurt and things go wrong, and suddenly you’re right back in the middle of it.” He tilted his head. “Or let me guess, you actually missed the game. And now you want to drag him in with you.” A small, cold smile formed on my lips before I could stop it. “Now that you’ve told me who you really are,” I said calmly, “we don’t have a problem, but if you speak about my family anyho

I sat there in the driver’s seat, my foot pressed hard against the brake pedal. It was an automatic reflex, a way to keep myself from either fleeing or jumping out to help. . Outside, the world was falling apart. Yuri was a complete mess. He wasn't the composed, dangerous man I had met earlier. He looked broken as he stood just a few meters away from the car, waving his arms like a madman, his movements were shaky and uncoordinated. Even in the dim evening, the streetlamps cast a shadowy glow. I could see the dark blood everywhere, dripping from his fingertips, staining his sleeves, and leaving small, dark circles on the grey asphalt. His face had a look of pure terror, one that you never forget once you’ve seen it. His eyes were bulging, and I could see his chest heaving. But I didn't move to help him. For a moment, the world felt like it had gone on mute, and I stared through the windshield, but I wasn't really seeing the road or houses. I was looking through them, thinki