Buried in shame. Rising in power

CHAPTER EIGHT — THE SHADOW OF HIS NAME

The morning broke with a chill that clung stubbornly to the air, as if the world itself sensed that Ethan Rose was walking toward something he might not return from.

He left the small safehouse before dawn, the sky painted with pale bruises of purple and blue. His bruised knuckles throbbed with each step, but pain was the last thing he cared about. What mattered was the envelope he carried—sealed, creased, and stolen from his father’s old study the night before.

Mia had begged him not to go back there.

But he had.

And now he knew why his father died.

Ethan’s mind raced as he made his way down the cracked pavement toward the abandoned warehouse at East Block—once the headquarters of the Crimson Vow, now the hideout of the only man who could confirm the truth:

His father hadn’t betrayed anyone.

He had been betrayed.

Inside the warehouse, dust floated like silent ghosts in the windowless gloom. Wooden crates were scattered about, and the metal beams overhead creaked as if remembering a thousand secrets.

A shadow moved.

“You’re early,” a man rasped.

Ethan stiffened. Cole Mercer—the only loyal friend his father ever had. Once a feared lieutenant in the Crimson Vow. Now a ghost surviving off the remains of his former life.

Cole stepped forward, his beard unkempt, his eyes carrying the exhaustion of too many buried regrets.

“You said you had something for me,” Cole said.

Ethan held out the envelope. “This was hidden in my father’s desk. It has your name on it.”

Cole hesitated only briefly before tearing it open. As his eyes scanned the contents, the man who had once stared down armed syndicates without flinching suddenly went pale.

“Ethan…” Cole whispered. “You shouldn’t have found this.”

“I had to. Tell me the truth.”

Cole looked up, his jaw tightening. “Your father was framed by Adrian Hale. The same man who runs the city’s underground now. He wanted your father out of the way—wanted your family destroyed to weaken the council’s influence.”

Ethan felt his heartbeat slow. Cold. Heavy. “Why?”

“Because your father refused to join him.”

The world seemed to tilt. For ten years he had lived with the weight of a lie—that his father had betrayed his own crew, his own oath, his own blood.

Now he knew the truth.

A truth that would get him killed.

Cole stepped closer. “Once Hale learns you have this letter… he’ll come for you. He’ll come for the girl too.”

Ethan stiffened. “Mia?”

“She’s a witness now. Even unknowingly.”

A sharp metallic click echoed from the shadows.

Ethan reacted instantly—shoving Cole aside as a bullet tore through the air.

Gunfire exploded from the rafters.

Ethan rolled behind a crate, heart hammering. Cole grabbed his shoulder. “They followed you!”

“No. They followed you,” Ethan shot back.

Dozens of footsteps surrounded the warehouse. Men in black tactical gear moved with chilling precision.

Adrian Hale’s assassins.

Cole cursed under his breath. “Listen to me. There’s a hidden passage at the back. Go. I’ll cover you.”

Ethan shook his head. “I’m not leaving you to die.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Cole growled. “Your father’s legacy lives in you. Not me.”

A grenade clattered across the floor.

Cole grabbed it with bare hands and flung it toward the far wall, diving away as it detonated in a burst of fire and heat.

“RUN!”

Ethan sprinted through the maze of crates as bullets shattered wood around him. Smoke burned his eyes. The exit door came into view—but a figure blocked his path.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Wearing a crimson insignia.

The Crimson Vow’s new enforcer.

“So the prodigal son returns,” the man sneered.

Ethan didn’t think—he lunged. The man caught his punch mid-air, twisting Ethan’s wrist until pain shot up his arm. With brutal strength, he slammed Ethan against the wall.

“You should have stayed hidden, boy. Adrian Hale wants your head.”

“I’m not that easy to kill,” Ethan spat.

“Oh but you are,” the man said, reaching for the dagger at his hip.

Before the blade could plunge toward Ethan’s chest—

Cole came out of nowhere, smashing a metal pipe into the enforcer’s skull.

The man staggered. Ethan rammed his knee into his stomach and hurled him backward into a stack of crates.

“GO!” Cole yelled.

“What about—”

“I said GO!”

Ethan hesitated only half a heartbeat before bolting through the exit door.

He didn’t look back.

He couldn’t.

Outside, Ethan staggered into the open lot, chest heaving, soot streaked across his skin. Sirens echoed in the distance—whether police or more of Hale’s men, he couldn’t tell.

His phone buzzed.

A message from Mia.

“Ethan, something’s wrong. Someone came to the house asking for you.”

His blood froze.

Another message followed immediately.

“They said… if you don’t come with them, they’ll take me instead.”

Ethan’s heart stopped.

Then came the final message:

“Ethan… I think I’m being followed.”

The last spark of safety in his life flickered out.

Ethan tightened his fist.

They wanted a war?

They were about to get one.