2026-07-26 03:05:12
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CHAPTER 76
Marco stepped forward and pushed Derek aside with one flat hand against his chest, not hard, just enough to move him a full step to the left. Derek stumbled slightly, more startled than hurt, his mouth already opening to protest.Marco leaned in close to Natalie's ear, his voice dropping low enough that only she could hear it."You need to come see me. Or I tell your husband everything, in detail, right here in front of the whole garage." His breath was warm against her ear, his tone perfectly calm, like he was discussing the weather.Natalie's face went white as bleached bone. Her hands began to tremble at her sides.Derek spun around, jealousy flaring instantly. "What did you just say to my wife? What did he say to you, Natalie?""Nothing, Derek, he was just asking about the dog." Natalie's voice cracked halfway through the sentence, her smile stretched thin and shaking.Derek's eyes narrowed, jumping between his wife's face and Marco's calm expression, suspicion crawling all over h
CHAPTER 75
Marco brought Tank down to the garage on the fifth morning and felt the shift the moment his foot hit the bottom step. The place used to buzz with the low hum of neighbors chatting, kids kicking a ball, dogs barking at each other in that harmless way animals do when they haven't learned to be afraid yet. Now it felt like walking into a room full of wolves pretending to be sheep.Every head turned when he passed. Every glance carried the same calculation, the same silent math of how much food a person might be sitting on and how much they might get away with taking. His decision to post those photos in the group chat had made him a walking target, and he could feel dozens of hungry eyes crawling across his shoulders as he walked Tank along the perimeter.From now on, nighttime only. Fewer eyes, fewer problems.He was halfway through his loop when a familiar voice cut through the tense quiet."Well, look who it is! The famous lottery winner himself!" Derek came swaggering across the gar
CHAPTER 74
The reinforced door swung open on its own. Gerald half carried, half dragged Sarah and Tyler through the threshold and out into the freezing corridor beyond, leaving Ryan alone on the ground and Mrs. Patterson still unconscious against the far wall.Marco walked over, grabbed Ryan by the back of his shirt collar, and hauled him toward the exit like a sack of garbage. Ryan groaned with every movement, his broken ribs grinding, but he did not fight back. He had nothing left to fight with.Marco shoved him through the doorway and let him crumple onto the concrete beside the rest of his family, who were already huddled together in the corridor, shivering from cold and terror in equal measure."Listen to me very carefully." Marco stood in the doorway, his voice dropping into something flat and final. "If any one of you ever comes near my safe house again, for any reason, I will not use a pulse next time. I will use a bullet. And I promise you, at this range, I will not miss."Nobody respon
CHAPTER 73
The pulse erupted from Marco's palm as a wave of invisible force, silent except for the low thrum of displaced air. It caught Ryan square in the chest and lifted him clean off his feet, hurling him backward into the concrete wall with a sickening thud. He slid down to the floor in a heap, gasping, both hands clutching his ribs."My ribs." Ryan's voice came out in a wheeze, his face contorted in agony. "He broke my ribs. What the hell was that. What ARE you."The laughter died instantly. Every weapon in the room lowered an inch.Mrs. Patterson's shriek cut through the sudden silence. "You monster! You absolute monster! How dare you attack my son! I'll make sure everyone in this building knows what kind of animal you really..."The second pulse hit her mid sentence. She flew backward and hit the concrete floor hard enough that her rolling pin skittered out of her hand and rolled to a stop against the far wall. She did not get up. She did not move at all except for the shallow rise and f
CHAPTER 72
The door clicked shut behind them with a heavy metallic finality. Then the lights snapped on all at once, flooding the corridor with brightness so sudden that all five Pattersons flinched and threw their hands up to shield their eyes.When the spots cleared from their vision, Marco was standing ten feet away in a t shirt and sweatpants, arms crossed, mid yawn, looking exactly like a man who had been mildly inconvenienced during his bedtime routine. Tank stood beside him, low growl rumbling in his chest, hackles raised along his spine."You're finally here." Marco stretched his neck to one side, joints popping audibly. "I've been watching you shuffle around my garage for the last twenty minutes. Figured I'd let you in so we didn't have to do this through a locked door."Ryan's face went slack with confusion for exactly one second. Then his eyes swept the room, counting. Five of them. One of him. No visible weapon in Marco's hands."You knew we were coming." Ryan's grip tightened on his
CHAPTER 71
Eight floors below and four buildings over, the Patterson family sat around their kitchen table in complete darkness. The food was gone. Not running low. Gone. The last can of beans had been scraped clean that morning, and all that remained in the refrigerator was a half empty bottle of soy sauce and a jar of pickles floating in murky brine.Ryan paced the kitchen, his phone flashlight cutting sharp lines through the dark. "We don't have a choice. There's five of us and nothing left to eat. That man is sitting on a mountain of food he won't share with anyone, and the police don't exist anymore. Nobody is coming to stop us."Sarah sat in the corner holding Tyler on her lap, her face tight with worry. "Ryan, he broke your father's arm over a bag of takeout. He dislocated a man's shoulder in front of fifty people. This isn't someone you can just walk up to and push around.""That's why we're not walking up to him." Ryan stopped pacing and looked at his family with the hard, desperate eye
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