2025-11-06 03:54:10Like a gnawed beast, the warehouse crouched on the brink of the Anacostia, its corroded steel ribs exposed to the darkness. Blood-colored pulses flew across the cracked concrete as a lone red exit sign buzzed and flickered above the loading area. With the Glock lifted in a two-handed grip and the barrel sweeping shadows, Tatiana entered via the side entrance. The air tasted like old blood and diesel.
"Clear," she shouted in a hushed voice.
Alexander trailed after, his scar glaring in the red light, a silk mask pressed up against his forehead. With her quilt draped like a shawl, Mira slept against his shoulder. Cole came up the back, eyes scanning, AR-15 slung.
Broken glass crunched beneath Tatiana's boots. "The place has a death odor."
Alexander whispered, "Better than prison."
Cole opened a container with a kick. Inside are C-4 bricks, communications devices, and tactical vests. "The care package for Grayson." He has a romantic side.
Tatiana raised a vest and holstered her Glock. "Make a plan?"
Alexander wrapped the quilt around Mira and placed her on a pallet stack. Benjamin's gala is scheduled for tomorrow. Senate donors, live stream, black tie. We bring it down, reveal the patents, and activate the heir clause. By dawn, Mira has 51 percent of Whitaker Dynamics.
Tatiana's fingers froze on the straps of her vest. "What about the sniper?"
"Handled." Alexander tapped the device in his ear. "Sitrep, Grayson."
Crane has a cold. Fish is the body's food. However, I can see movement (three heat signatures on the east side of the roof). Armed.
Cole fired a bullet. "I'll assume the superior position."
Alexander gave a nod. "With me, Tat."
Boots silent, they made their way farther inside the warehouse. Silver bars striped the floor as moonlight slanted through damaged skylights. Tatiana felt her heart pound in her ears.
Alexander halted beneath the exit sign that was flickering. Silk covered his face like a second skin as he drew the mask down. The Phantom returned her gaze.
"Seven years," he added in a hushed tone. "This is what I dreamed of."
Tatiana moved in close. Through the mask, her fingers followed the scar. "I ceased having dreams. began to live.
Pressing her hand to his cheek, he grabbed her wrist. "No more surviving."
They mixed their breaths. Her lips brushed the fabric across his mouth as she stood up on her toes. "Show me."
Crushing his mouth into hers, he pulled the mask up just enough. The kiss (teeth, tongue, the scrape of stubble) was starving. He flushed as her hands fisted his coat. With rough calluses against the soft skin of her waist, his palm crept under her sweatshirt. She arched against him, shivering.
A gentle thump above. They dispersed, arms raised.
In their earpieces, Cole said, "The roof team is descending." Zip lines. Thirty seconds.
Alexander lowered the mask. "Positions."
Tatiana hid behind one of the forklifts. Alexander hid across from him, Glock steady. Mira muttered as she stirred on the pallets.
The first intruder rappelled quickly and fell through a skylight. MP5 silenced, black tactical equipment. Tatiana made a single center mass shot. The rope tangled as the corpse jerked to the ground.
The second man rolled and landed. He was struck in the throat by Alexander's round. The concrete was splashed with blood.
At the edge, the third hesitated, watched his comrades fall, and attempted to get back up. Through the skylight, Cole's sniper fire struck and captured the top of his skull. The corpse fell like a bag.
Quiet.
Tatiana let out a breath and dropped her weapon. "That's all of them?"
Grayson: "Unfavorable. Outside, the SUV just rolled up. Four more. Benjamin's voice on communications (he is present).
Alexander's eyes became crazed. "He desires the heir."
Tatiana clenched her jaw. "He wins a war."
The loading bay was where they went. The large roll-up door squealed up. With four mercs wearing bulletproof vests on either side of him, Benjamin Whitaker stood in the floodlights in a perfectly fitted tuxedo.
"Good evening, Alex," Benjamin called with a greasy grin. "Let's keep things simple. Turn the child over.
With his mask on, Alexander moved into the light. "My life was stolen by you. I'll take yours now.
Benjamin laughed. "It's still dramatic. I own the patents. I own the business. The girl is,
Glock pointed at Benjamin's forehead as Tatiana moved to stand next to Alexander. Say it. I challenge you.
Benjamin paused his smile. "Tatiana. The wild card is always present.
A merc held up his rifle. Cole yelled and fell after his knee was struck by Cole's sniper fire. The others stopped.
Alexander moved forward. At daybreak, Mira inherits. You're finished.
Benjamin reached into his jacket with his hand. "Or I burn everything." With a detonator, he pulled. In the foundation, C-4. This location turns into a crater with a single click. child included.
On the trigger, Tatiana's finger became white. "You would murder your own niece?"
"Damage to collateral." Benjamin hovered his thumb.
Alexander made a lunge. Clattering across the concrete, the detonator flew. Benjamin's mercs started shooting. After rolling, Alexander returned two rounds, both of which were headshots. Tatiana squashed the detonator beneath her boot after diving in and scooping it up.
Benjamin ran toward the SUV. The windshield was broken by Cole's subsequent round. The driver sagged. Benjamin slammed the door and jumped into the rear seat. Tires peeled out and spun.
After that, Alexander ran, shooting at the tires. Rubber tore; the SUV struck a barrier, fishtailed, and its engine died.
When Tatiana got to Mira, she picked her up. The girl opened her eyes. "Mom?"
"Be quiet, sweetheart. Daddy is on his way.
Alexander opened the door of the SUV with a wrench. Benjamin fumbled for his handgun. Alexander gave him two punches. Benjamin's tuxedo shirt was covered in blood.
"You set me up," Alexander growled, his fist up.
Blood was spat out by Benjamin. "You obstructed the path."
With Mira on her hip, Tatiana emerged. "Alex."
His fist trembled as he froze. "Not in front of her," Tatiana replied with her eyes.
Lowering his hand, Alexander took Benjamin by the lapels and pulled him into the warehouse. Cole secured his wrists with a zip.
Grayson's voice: "Inbound cops. Five minutes.
Tatiana caught Alexander's eye. He goes to the gala with us. Stream the confession live.
Manic laughter escaped Benjamin's lips. "You will never be admitted."
Tatiana grinned icily. "We've received invitations." She took two engraved cards that had been stolen from Benjamin's jacket out of her pocket.
Her forehead was kissed by Alexander. "That's my girl."
They gagged Benjamin and loaded him into the trawler's hold. From the pier, Cole hot-wired a panel van. Mira, quilt and all, was belted in the back by Tatiana.
Alexander got behind the wheel. With her hand on his thigh, Tatiana snuggled in next to him.
"The world sees the truth tomorrow," she declared.
He put his hand over hers. "After that, we head home."
Warehouse fires dimmed in the rearview as the vehicle moved into the night.
Through the windshield, Tatiana's heart was illuminated by a red laser (stable, patient).
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 190: Sealed Breath
In the sudden silence, the seed's pulse sounded like a silent thunderclap. It wasn’t a threat. It was true. There was a period at the end of a sentence, but it had rolled under the desk and was just waiting to be picked up. They didn’t speak. They merely stared at the little, black glimmer on the white sand. It was beneath the slide, or where the slide had been, but it was now only a metal curve protruding from the dune that had been washed by the sand. “We could leave it,” Alexander remarked, his voice scratchy. He wrapped a protecting arm around Mira, who was quiet, watching the seed with a child’s somber interest. “Bury it deeper. Forget it’s here.” “It would grow,” Tatiana responded, her own voice weary beyond measure. "In the dark." without anyone to observe it. What kind of story blooms in the dark, alone?” She thought about Benjamin, nurturing his hatred in seclusion. "A perverse one." A spiteful one. Thus, we demolish it. Right now. He took a step toward it, his foot sinki
Chapter 189: Death Fruit
The playground was eerily quiet. There was no longer any wind. The distant sounds of the suburb were gone. On the wood chips, it was just the three of them: Tatiana on her knees, a sobbing seven-year-old Mira clutching to her, and Alexander Harrington's elderly, breathless husk with a jar of his final sigh sitting on his ribcage. The floating orchard was gone. The sky was a neutral, flat blue. The golden swing lay neglected, its chains now dull and inactive. All that existed was this finale. CHAPTER 400. Tatiana stared at the jar. The label was final. Absolute. This was not feasible. It was a receipt. For all the struggles, loops, and love that had unavoidably brought us to this point. To a playground where her spouse died of old age in minutes, his life-force robbed to pay the mortgage of 215 destroyed tragedies. Mira’s small hands clutched her mother’s arm. “Is Daddy sleeping?” The innocent question was a knife. Tatiana said in a cracked voice, "No, sweetheart." “He’s… gone.” I
Chapter 188: Sky Swing
The fruit was a gut-punch of recollection made tangible. Tatiana could hear the ghost of her own cry, feel the slick heat of Alexander's blood through her clothes, and smell the cordite and champagne from the gala. Trapped in that sphere of smoked glass, it was all there, a museum display of her biggest failure. To reach Mira, she would have to fly past it. Its proximity seemed toxic, a psychological radiation that threatened to suck her back into that moment, to make her feel the death that had defined so much of their war. Mira swung, heedless in her enchanted sleep, a trapped princess in a floating necropolis of horrible endings. This is his creation, Tatiana realized, hovering, her twilight wings beating the thin air. In order to trap her among the ruins, he enticed her up here. To remind me of the cost of every victory. Benjamin weaponized their own past since he was no longer able to prevail in a straight fight. She gazed from the Death Fruit to her daughter. A choice. Confr
Chapter 187: Swing Altar
The sight of their daughter, ankle-locked to a golden swing and soaring into the heavens with a puppet’s laugh, broke something in Alexander. The cool, strategic half of him was destroyed, leaving only raw, paternal terror. He yelled, "MIRA!" and lunged for the swing set. However, the swing was no longer fixed to the playground's typical A-frame. The cables stretched skyward, unimaginably long, vanishing into the cloud layer. The actual machinery was someplace in the heavens; the set was really a stand-in. Harrison-13 stood back, his hands in his pockets, gazing with a peaceful, inquisitive look, as if seeing an interesting science experiment. He was no longer the shy boy next door. He served a purpose. A plot device. Tatiana didn’t spend breath on shouts. She stared down at her own body, at the ripped bridal robe. She focused on the region between her shoulder blades, where the storm-cloud wings had erupted. They were gone, but the canal was burnt open. The phantom agony served a
Chapter 186: Priest Smile
The word “granddaughter” hung in the fragrant air of the false cathedral, a spider’s thread of possession. Benjamin’s smile returned, thinner now, harsher. The rebellious bride, Tatiana, was not in his line of sight. His sights were on the prize, the heir. Standing motionless in her maid of honor's gown on Mira-20. Benjamin reiterated, his voice a calming, toxic tune, "The story must go on." We transplant to another branch if one fails to produce fruit. The tree is alive. The orchard endures.” He extended a hand toward Mira. “Come, child. Take your mother’s place at the altar. Accept your legacy. After all, you have a birthright to it. Mira remained still. Her eyes were wide, fixated on Tatiana. She was the seventy-year-old female who had nibbled the apple from Chapter 1. She was aware of the price of legacy. Alexander discovered his voice, a rough rasp of sound. “You don’t touch her.” Benjamin’s gaze flicked to him, amused. “Or what, Alexander? Will you use your naked hands to de
Chapter 185: Gold Wedding
It was triggered by the taste. A circuit was finished when a synapse fired. The rented ranch house, the stormy backyard, the chain-link fence, all of it melted like a watercolor painting in the rain. The sensations from the fruit became reality. The aroma of myrrh and orange flowers permeated the thick, fragrant air of a large, packed room. The sensation of silk became the heavy, structured weight of a wedding gown on her torso. The organ's sound gave way to the grand, soaring sounds of Wagner's "Bridal Chorus." Tatiana blinked. In a vast, gothic church, she stood at the end of a long, red-carpeted aisle. Stained glass windows portraying not saints, but elaborate, abstract patterns of thorns and roses, reflect colored light on the stone floor. Hundreds of guests sat in pews, their faces a jumble of happiness and sorrow. All were dressed in impeccable, formal clothing. She was clutching a bouquet of white roses and black calla lilies. She looked to her left. Alexander stood there
You may also like
Reborn with the Void Soul Core
Save me1.1K viewsAncient God, The Sword God of Horror
Elixir of Life235 viewsHeavenly Demonic Cultivation
Soulless void 3.5K viewsVillain Awakening: Chronicles Of The God Of War
Prince Clover1.2K viewsDao of Time: Awakening of The Timeless Immortal
Elixir of Life1.0K viewsCollecting Experience Until I Am The Desolation
Black hole813 viewsUndying Blood: The Path of the Ancient God
Save me148 viewsBlind Paragon: Soul Devourer in a Game-Like World
SkylarX471 views