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Chapter 27 – The Dockside Trap
The fog was so thick it looked alive. It coiled between the shipping crates, slithered across the wet asphalt, swallowed every streetlamp in a murky glow.The docks were always eerie at night, but tonight they felt intentional, as if the Syndicate had ordered the weather itself to collaborate. Adrian stepped onto the pier without hesitation.A silent silhouette in a black coat, moving like he already knew exactly where they wanted him. He did. Because he knew how they operated. Because he remembered their methods. Because tonight felt like déjà vu of the life he thought he had burned to ash.But mostly because he couldn’t ignore the faint, familiar heartbeat waiting ahead, one he’d learned to read like a second sense.Victor. Alive. Shaken. Drugged. But alive. Adrian’s steps didn’t speed up. They didn’t need to.If the Syndicate wanted him emotional, frantic, sloppy, they’d miscalculated. He walked as if he were the one who set this trap.Victor’s eyelashes fluttered. A low groan s
Chapter 26 – The Syndicate in the Dark
The warehouse was pitch black when Adrian returned. Not quiet, dead. Like the building itself was holding its breath.Rain dripped from the edges of his coat as he stepped inside, eyes immediately scanning the shadows.“Victor,” he called softly.No answer. The cot was empty. Blankets on the floor. Blood, small, hurried drops, led toward the back exit. Adrian’s jaw tightened.“Victor!” he hissed louder. Still nothing.He moved fast now, cutting through the warehouse, checking corners, the stairwell, the side office. Nothing. Empty. Deserted.Then, a faint buzzing sound. A phone vibrating on the metal table. Victor’s burner phone.Adrian crossed the room, grabbed it, and answered without hesitating.“Where is he?”A distorted voice responded, male, mechanical, emotionless.“We didn’t harm your man.”Adrian’s grip tightened around the phone.“Who is this?”Static. Then: “A message.”“For me?”“For Antonio Lavez.” Adrian’s blood chilled.“What message?” The voice paused, deliberate,
Chapter 25 – The Name Buried in Blood
The light swung on its wire, casting a slow, nauseating sway of shadows across the metal walls.Adrian’s gun stayed raised, but his heartbeat slipped, once, hard, as the face under the hood emerged fully into the glow. No. Impossible.The last time he’d seen that face, it was half-buried under rubble, glass, and blood. A night he spent seven years trying to erase.Yet here they sat , alive. Breathing. Smiling like a ghost that learned how to wear skin.“Hello, Antonio,” they said quietly. “Miss me?”Adrian’s jaw tightened. His voice came out low, dangerous.“You’re dead.” The figure lifted one eyebrow.“Apparently not.”Adrian stepped closer, gun pressed to the figure’s forehead. They didn’t flinch.“You died in the fire,” Adrian said, voice sharp. “I saw your body. I saw. ”“You saw what you were meant to see.”A calm smile flickered. “I wasn’t in that building.”Adrian’s breath hitched, but only for a moment.“Why are you here?” he demanded.The figure leaned back, crossing thei
Chapter 24 – The Shadow That Knows His Name
The blinking red light pulsed through the warehouse like a heartbeat. Adrian stared at the message on the encrypted tablet.Three words that should’ve been impossible. HELLO. I KNOW YOU’RE ALIVE. WE SHOULD TALK.Victor slept on the cot behind him, drugged into deep silence. Outside, the rain drummed against the corrugated roof.Adrian typed nothing. Instead, he turned the tablet off then crushed it beneath his heel. But the moment he did, a second device across the room flickered on. A voice, distorted, mechanical, came through its tiny speaker.“That was unnecessary, Antonio.”Adrian froze. No one had called him that name in years. He reached for his gun. The voice continued, calm… amused.“Relax. If I wanted you dead, Jolie’s bomb would have done the job.”Adrian’s grip tightened.“Who are you?” he asked. A soft chuckle.“Someone who knows exactly how you survived tonight. Someone who knows what’s coming.”Static hissed. Then, click.The device went dark. A single line remained g
Chapter Twenty-Three – The Ghost Builds a Throne
Rain hammered against the high-rise windows like a warning knocking from the sky. Jolie Crane stood frozen in the middle of her bedroom, her phone still glowing on the floor where it had fallen.Her breath came too fast, too sharp. Every instinct in her body screamed this is impossible, but her bones knew the truth before her brain did.“Adrian…” she whispered. A shiver ran through her, slicing all the way to the spine. The door burst open.“Jolie?” Daniel rushed in, hair wild, shirt half-buttoned. “What happened? I heard.”She cut him off, voice trembling despite her effort to steady it.“Adrian called.”Daniel blinked. “What?”“He....” She swallowed hard. “He called. Just now.”Daniel stared at her for a long second… then he laughed. Actually laughed.“You’re shaken because of a prank call? Jolie, the man is dead.”Her head snapped toward him. “Do I look like I confuse criminals with prank callers?”Daniel lifted a hand defensively. “Okay, okay, just breathe. Maybe it was AI mimicr
Chapter 22 – The Man Who Died Twice
The city woke to fire. News choppers circled a tower of black smoke that clawed at the morning sky. The explosion had shattered three floors of the Ocellus Building , an address with no nameplate, no listed tenants, and no traceable owner.But the world already had a name for it. ADRIAN BLACK DEAD IN PENTHOUSE BLAST.Victor stumbled out of the wreckage, blood streaking his temple, lungs clawing for air. The sirens screamed around him. Security drones buzzed overhead. Paramedics yelled orders he barely heard.“Get him stable! We have one survivor!”He fought to breathe. His chest burned. Smoke blackened his hands. But all he could see was the empty balcony.All he could feel was the heat , and the silence.“Adrian…” he rasped, voice breaking.A medic pressed him onto a stretcher. “You’re lucky to be alive, sir. We didn’t find anyone else.”Victor tried to sit up. “No. You don’t understand. He, he’s not dead.”The medic frowned. “There’s nothing left, sir. That floor was vaporized.”V
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