The Hidden King: Rise of Hercules

Pained Memories

Alex narrowed his gaze at him, wondering if he might know this bizarre visitor, yet the wrinkled face remained completely foreign to his eyes.

His jaw practically unhinged when Mr. Kane dropped straight down to his knees. “Greetings, Hercules. It is an extraordinary honor to look upon you and hear your voice,” he beamed, slowly pulling himself back up to his feet.

Alex stayed deeply skeptical, struggling to swallow any of this nonsense. It blew his mind that a filthy rich tycoon like Mr. Kane would bow to someone like him, let alone refer to him as a master.

Yet, this insane encounter pointed to a terrifying reality: something was seriously broken in his past. His life before the orphanage caretakers found him was a complete blank space, buried under a thick layer of fog.

“Where in the world have you been hiding?” Mr. Kane grinned from ear to ear.

“For a full decade, we hunted everywhere. To think I’ve finally tracked down the true heir of Hercules! Who would have ever guessed I’d find you here, son?” He chuckled warmly. “You must be Hercules’s own blood. Did your old man ever mention us before he passed away?”

Alex blinked once, stunned. “I have a father? And he’s dead?” The second those words left his lips, a blinding flash tore through his brain. He saw a rugged, tough-looking man walking right beside a young boy who shared his exact facial features.

“Let them know—it’s Hercules,” the man’s heavy, gravelly voice echoed, making everyone in the room tremble except for the young boy. Then the man turned his head, locking eyes with him. “We’re heading to the party together, Alex.”

Just as fast as it hit him, the vision vanished, leaving Alex staring blankly back at Mr. Kane. Piece by piece, his locked-away memories were clawing their way back to the surface, even if the painful delay made zero sense.

“What on earth are you blabbering about?” Alex asked, skepticism still plastered across his face. He didn't understand a single thing. All he had were random mental flashbacks, not the full story of his stolen childhood.

“Has nobody ever told you about Hercules? He was the closest brother and business partner to Leo, the founder of our entire corporate empire. We built a massive global syndicate from the ground up, all with one ultimate mission: to find you, the true Hercules, our supreme Boss,” Mr. Kane explained, raising an eyebrow. “I built it alongside Leo and your father.”

Alex stared back at him, and a violent wave of realization slammed into his skull so hard he nearly tripped backward. More memories flooded his brain. He remembered the dark truth of what happened right after his father and Leo forged their criminal syndicate. Rival gangs had tried to wipe them out. On the night of the ambush, as Alex and his father rode toward the gala, the attack struck. But the sickening reality hit him like a truck—Leo hadn't tried to protect them. Leo had betrayed his own best friend.

He watched in his mind as Leo pulled a gun and shot his father point-blank in the head. Alex had tried to crawl toward them, screaming in silent agony, but a vicious car crash had hurled his small body clear across the highway wreckage.

Before he could reach his dying father, one of Leo’s thugs turned a pistol on young Alex and pulled the trigger.

Alex gasped, his eyes snapping wide open as he was yanked back to reality. His heart pounded like a trapped bird against his ribs, and a splitting migraine hammered into his temples. He had spent his whole life trying to ignore the void left by the orphanage, but now that the memories were back, they tasted like poison. All he wanted now was to hunt down Leo and demand to know why he betrayed his best friend.

He whipped his head toward Mr. Kane. Through the haze of fresh rage, a familiar name surfaced from the depths of his restored past. “Do you know One-Eye John? Where is he?”

Mr. Kane’s eyes bulged in pure shock for a second. “Good God... you actually remember?” His expression immediately darkened into heavy sorrow. “John didn’t make it out of that ambush alive. We recovered your father’s body from the wreckage, but you were completely gone. We have been searching for you ever since.”

Alex squeezed his eyes shut, drawing in a ragged, shaking breath. The grief was suffocating. “My father was murdered right in front of me. I saw the whole thing.”

Mr. Kane’s jaw dropped in total horror. “What? Where were you hiding? We assumed you never made it to the car with Hercules because your body vanished from the scene. Frankly,” his eyes narrowed with deep sadness, “we honestly believed you were dead.”

Alex furrowed his brows, a bitter snarl twisting his lips. “I was left for dead! Three hollow-point bullets tore straight through my ribs and chest! I was damn well dead!” he roared angrily. He wanted nothing to do with this underworld nightmare, but hell, how was he supposed to accept the fact that his father was butchered by his closest ally?

Shaken, Mr. Kane hurried over to his heavy mahogany desk, unlocked a hidden drawer, and pulled out an old, weathered photograph. He rushed back to Alex and held it out. “These were the three founding brothers: Leo, Rio, and myself.”

Alex snatched the picture from his hand, his eyes burning as he stared down at the image. He immediately recognized Mr. Kane, whose face had barely changed over the years. In the exact center stood his father, flanked by Mr. Kane and Leo.

As his eyes locked onto Leo’s face in the photo, the mental replay returned with terrifying clarity. He could still see the cold, sadistic grin plastered across Leo’s face the exact second he blew his father’s brains out. Alex couldn't scream, couldn't run; he could only watch as his father’s life was snuffed out in cold blood.

“Something is deeply, horribly wrong here,” Alex muttered darkly, walking over to slump into a leather chair. He clutched the photograph so tightly his knuckles turned stark white, radiating an intensity capable of terrifying anyone in the room. Why would Leo betray his father? What drove him to pull the trigger? The answers still eluded him, but one thing was certain: he wanted to snap Leo’s neck with his bare hands and make him pay for his father's murder.

“What on earth happened?” Mr. Kane stepped closer. “Where have you been living all these years?”

Alex looked up, his eyes swimming with unbridled pain. “I grew up in a crappy orphanage. When I finally aged out, I broke my back working double shifts just to pay my way through college.”

Mr. Kane blinked in shock. “I must inform Charles about this immediately. Everyone will be thrilled to see you.”

Alex frowned, a sudden thought hitting him. “Wait. Who the hell is Charles? And what is this obsession with the name Hercules? I know it was my father’s codename, but what makes it such a big deal?”

“Well, Rio and I built a massive corporate conglomerate and a global mafia network boasting over twenty thousand elite operatives worldwide. Charles is Leo’s son. He inherited control of the syndicate ten years ago after Leo supposedly died saving your father from a massive fire, he was burned completely beyond recognition.”

Alex’s eyes bulged in pure shock. Leo killed his father, yet the story was that Leo died trying to save him? What in the absolute hell was going on?!

“Though, right now, we are walking through a dangerous political minefield and forced to keep an extremely low profile,” Mr. Kane warned gravely. “It’s imperative you do the exact same thing.”

Mr. Kane leaned in closer. “If the inner circle discovers that Hercules has returned from the dead, rival factions will swarm out of the woodwork to assassinate you. You’d have a massive target on your back twenty-four seven. I know your combat skills are legendary, but you can’t fight off an army of global hitmen every single second.”

Alex stared at him, utter confusion clouding his features. “What kind of threat are we even talking about here?”

“I believe you’ll need to sit down and discuss that directly with Charles. Though... I doubt it's safe for you two to meet openly right now, as his movements are heavily watched. Reaching out could blow your cover and put a target on both of you.”

Alex gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached. He had zero desire to meet Charles. Why on earth would he want to break bread with the traitor’s son?

“And why should I waste my time talking to Charles anyway? If my father had an entire criminal empire, why didn’t he ever breathe a word of it to me?”

Mr. Kane sighed heavily. “Perhaps he was simply trying to shield you from this wretched life. Besides, technically speaking, Charles currently serves as the second-in-command to Hercules—which means you are his supreme boss.”

Alex squeezed his eyes shut as a toxic wave of bitter resentment flooded his veins. How could the son of his father's betrayer be running his family's empire? And why on earth was everyone lying about what really happened?

Without another word, Mr. Kane turned back to his desk, grabbed a sleek fountain pen, and quickly scribbled a series of cryptographic symbols onto a pristine sheet of heavy stationery. He tore the paper off, walked back over, and thrust it toward Alex.

Alex slowly opened his eyes, glancing down at the note. He was completely stunned.

What in the world was he looking at?!