"Leave me alone you scum!!"The words tore out of Alex as the two security men dragged him across the marble floor and threw him into the backyard. He hit the grass hard. Cold and wet. His black suit soaked through in seconds. The fabric clung to his skin and the dirt stained the knees.One of the men stepped forward. His face was stern, finger pointed at Alex like a weapon. "If you try to cause a commotion out there, we promise it will be two times worse than what Madam Victoria asked us to do," he said, voice low and angry.Alex stared up at him, stunned to the bone. Did they just drag him out of his father's house? Like he was nothing? And this was one of his father's loyal men. One of the men who used to nod at him in the halls and call him "young master." Why were they suddenly turning against him?He watched as they turned and walked away, leaving him there. Detached, and miserable. Sitting on the wet grass with his suit ruined.Something was happening. He could f

After he left the gates of the villa with nothing but the sound of his own voice echoing behind him, Alex got straight into his car and drove away from the place that had once been his home and into the cold night with a heavy heart. As he drove through the empty streets, the streetlights passed over him in quick flashes, and with each passing light, more thoughts crowded into his head until he could barely breathe through the weight of them. He already knew, deep down, that things were not going to be easy for him anymore, and he already knew that from this moment forward, his life would never remain the same again because Victoria had made it clear that she intended to silence him completely. He could not afford to wait for her to make the first move against him, because if he did, then there would be nothing left of him to fight with. He had to start now, but the question that kept running through his mind was how, because how was he supposed to conquer a woman who now had every

Alex was woken up by a loud knock on the windshield that pulled him out of a deep, restless sleep. He wiped the sweat from his face with trembling hands, and only then did he realize that he had actually slept off in the car. But there was a bigger problem. Who was knocking on the windshield at this time? It was already dead night in the middle of a forest, so who in their right mind could possibly be out here. He adjusted his eyes through the darkness, and that was when he saw figures standing outside the car. Then one of them leaned forward and knocked on the windshield again, harder this time. “What the fuck is happening again?” Alex muttered, his voice shaking with fear. Of course these people couldn’t be cops. They were definitely mobs, or robbers. He watched as another person knocked on the window and shouted at him to open up. “Pull this shit down,” one of them said through a mask. Alex knew instantly that he was in serious danger, so he tried to start the engine

Alex couldn’t breathe. The cheers were too loud. The smell of blood and gunpowder was stuck in his throat. His hands were shaking so bad he had to press them into the dirty ground just to feel something solid. “Welcome to the circuit, Alexander.” Giff’s voice was calm. Too, too calm like he was welcoming Alex to a birthday party, not a slaughterhouse. Alex stared up at him. “What the hell is this?” he managed to say, his voice cracking. “This?” Giff gestured to the pit with his cigarette. Ash fell onto the dirt. “This is where men like you come to be reborn. Or die trying.” Below them, the man with the gun collapsed. While tow new people jumped on him instantly. No one pulled them off. The crowd roared louder. Someone threw a bottle into the pit and it shattered over the bodies. Alex scrambled to his feet. “We have to stop this. People are dying down there!” Giff turned to him slowly. The smirk was gone now. His brown eyes were empty. “And who’s going to stop it

The hallway smelled like rot and old rain. Alex walked behind the strange tall woman, his boots dragging over wood that creak with every step. The walls were stained, peeling, and stank like something had died behind them a hundred years ago and no one bothered to clean it. It was dark. Too dark. The only light came from a weak bulb flickering far down the corridor, casting shadows that stretched and snapped like fingers.He could hear his own breathing. He could hear hers too. Calm and measured. Like she did this every day."Where are we going?" Alex finally asked, stopping. His voice echoed and died.The woman stopped too. She turned slowly, like she had all the time in the world. She was tall, taller than most men Alex had met, with sharp shoulders under a sharp black coat. Her face was half in shadow, but he caught the curve of her lips. "Are you scared?" she asked.The question hit different. Definitely not mocking, but testing.Alex swallowed. He wasn’t about to look weak in