Celine stared up at him, her thoughts spinning.She had spent her entire life profiling powerful, dangerous men, but Slayde defied the metrics. He wasn't loud, boastful, or arrogant. He was simply an unstoppable force, calm, collected, and standing dead-center in a trap of his own making.A slow, sharp grin spread across her face. She lived for high-stakes games, and Slayde was the most fascinating player to enter the upper city in a decade.Celine raised her hand and snapped her fingers twice.From the shadows of the nearby balcony, a slender man in an unassuming black suit stepped forward. Her personal hand, an informant who moved through the city's underbelly like a ghost, bowed his head and awaited her directive.Celine kept her eyes locked on Slayde as she spoke. "I have a task for you. Slip down to the central holding facility. Avoid the Rolling sentries, but keep a hard lock on Caleb's sweep team. The moment they bring the old man in, I want the alert."The man nodded once.

Ezra slumped against the wall, gasping for breath. His face had gone entirely pale, his eyes wide with a volatile mix of shock and panic. He stared down at his rapidly swelling right hand, then looked back up at Slayde."You're dead," Ezra wheezed, his voice trembling despite his attempt at a threat. "You have no idea whose territory you're standing in. You're a dead man!"Slayde didn’t bother to reply. He simply took a single, slow step forward.That was enough. Ezra scrambled to his feet, keeping his spine pressed hard against the masonry, and practically slid around the edge of the balcony before sprinting down the corridor as fast as his polished dress shoes could carry him.Silence returned to the terrace. The cool night air drifted in from the open balcony, carrying the clean, sharp scent of rain from the streets far below.Slayde turned his head slightly, his gaze landing on the woman.She had stopped rubbing her wrist. Standing tall, her shoulders back, her midnight-blue g

Leaving the car behind, Slayde walked across the empty, rain-slicked pavement, his long, heavy strides carrying him directly toward the primary intake zone. The sharp charcoal suit he wore felt entirely out of place against the grimy, industrial exterior of the facility, but his posture carried the unmistakable weight of a man walking onto a battlefield.The main entrance was already locked down. Waiting just outside the steel doors were three bulky men clad in the heavy armor plates of the Rolling family's elite guard, their hands resting menacingly on the grips of their sidearms. They had been tipped off that someone might come, but as they looked up and saw the massive silhouette stepping out of the dark, the smirks on their faces instantly vanished.The guards exchanged brief, uncertain glances, their eyes darting over Slayde’s towering frame and the sharp tailoring of his suit. For a fraction of a second, they wondered if this single, imposing figure was truly the target Cale

Before the current could discharge into his skin, Slayde yanked the cables with violent, terrifying force. The two thugs holding the rifles were ripped entirely off their feet, flying through the air like ragdolls. Slayde swung the airborne men like human battering rams, slamming them directly into the center of the crowd. The heavy collision of bodies echoed off the concrete, shattering their formation instantly."Don't let him get close!" another thug screamed, panicking as Slayde breached the gap in a single, massive stride.A heavy brute swung an iron pipe horizontally, aiming for Slayde’s neck. Slayde ducked beneath the whistling metal, drove his fist straight into the thug's ribs, shivering his sternum, and ripped the heavy pipe from his collapsing grip.Using the crude iron bar, Slayde became a human demolition ball in the narrow hallway. He smashed the pipe upward into a thug's jaw, sending him spinning into the concrete wall. He spun, driving his elbow into another man

He had come to extract Maya’s father. A father. But looking at the hollow cheeks, the stark white hair, and the deeply wrinkled skin of the man shivering in Caleb's grip, Ari looked like a grandfather on the brink of death. Slayde wondered if the man had intentionally disguised himself as an ancient senior citizen to throw off the Rolling family, or if the facility's cells had simply worn him away to nothing. He had aged a century.Caleb, however, wasn't listening to Slayde’s demands. He was hyperventilating, his fingers slick with sweat as he dug the silver blade deeper into Ari’s neck. "Shut up! You don't make the demands here, you freak! Back off or he dies!""Please..." Ari suddenly sobbed, fat tears cutting tracks through the grime on his pale face. He looked at Slayde with wide, utterly desperate eyes, his bound hands shaking violently. "Please, don't let them kill me! I don't want to die here... please!"Caleb’s face instantly twisted into a triumphant, manic sneer. "H