2026-10-10 00:11:40
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Chapter Nine
Gavin's face went through about six different colors in three seconds. His ears burned so hot they could have lit a match. The words "tall gentleman" echoed in his skull, because Gavin Rourke was five foot seven and had spent his entire adult life pretending he was five foot nine."I'm not paying this. This is a scam. Call your manager." Gavin slapped the receipt back on the counter, his voice loud enough to make two nearby tables turn around."Did you just call my restaurant a scam?"The voice came from behind the kitchen doors. It was deep and flat and carried the kind of quiet authority that made the air in the room get heavier.A man stepped out. He was built like a refrigerator. Bald head polished to a shine. Tattoos crawled up both arms from wrist to shoulder, a mix of skulls, snakes, and words in a language Gavin could not read and did not want to learn. His neck was thicker than Gavin's thigh, and his eyes had the calm, patient look of a man who had heard every excuse in the b
Chapter Eight
Daniel came back inside from his smoke break looking like a man who had just won the lottery and was too polite to brag about it. He dropped into his chair, grabbed the menu, and started flipping through it with the lazy confidence of someone spending somebody else's money."Gavin, you know what, I just realized we didn't order enough. This is supposed to be a celebration, right? Me starting a new chapter in my life. We should do it properly."Gavin's smile was stitched on so tight it looked like it hurt."Sure, bro. Whatever you want. Tonight is about you.""That's what I like to hear." Daniel waved the waiter over and pointed at the drinks section without even looking at the prices. "Three bottles of the Pappy Van Winkle. The twenty year. Pack them to go. I want to take them home for later."The waiter's eyebrows went up half an inch. She scribbled it down and glanced at Gavin, whose smile had not moved a single millimeter even though his left eye was blinking at twice its normal sp
Chapter Seven
The second Daniel disappeared down the hallway toward the restroom, the masks came off. Gavin grabbed Vivian's wrist under the table and pulled her close, his voice dropping to a hiss that barely carried past the edge of their plates."We're losing him. You saw his face. He didn't even react when you touched his hand. A month ago, that would have had him stuttering like a lovesick puppy. Something changed."Vivian yanked her wrist free and rubbed it, her lips pressed thin. "I know something changed. I'm not blind, Gavin. He barely looked at me the whole dinner. He used to stare at me like I was the only woman on the planet.""Then you need to give him more. A lot more." Gavin's eyes were hard and calculating, the kind of look a man gets when he is watching money walk out the door. "You need to make him think he has a real chance with you. Not someday. Not maybe. Now."Vivian stared at him, her jaw tightening. "You want me to lead him on? Like actually pretend to be a loving wife?""I
Chapter Six
Daniel sat at his kitchen table with a pen between his teeth and a notebook full of scratched-out plans. The apartment was quiet. The only sound was the hum of the refrigerator and the occasional car horn from the street below.He closed his eyes and the memories came flooding back without permission. The scorching heat. The dry, cracked feeling of his own lips, his body growing weaker every day. The look on Vivian's face when she pushed the knife in. Not anger. Not guilt. Just boredom. Like she was popping a blister that had been annoying her.His jaw tightened until his teeth ached.In the previous life, when things got bad, people did not turn into survivors. They turned into animals. Worse than animals. A starving dog will fight another dog for a bone, but it will not pretend to love you for six months just to eat you when the bone runs out.He had no weapons last time. No walls. No plan. He had trusted two snakes with his food, his home, and his life."Never again."Daniel picked
Chapter Five
"Sir, I'm being serious." Daniel tried one more time. "Better safe than sorry. There's no downside to stocking up."The old man shook his head, let out a long, disappointed sigh, and looked at Daniel the way a teacher looks at a student who just failed the easiest question on the test."Son, you look like a decent young man. Why are you out here talking crazy? What a waste."He clasped his hands behind his back and walked away without looking back, every step radiating the kind of righteous pity that only old men who think they know everything can produce.Daniel stood there, caught somewhere between laughing and wanting to punch the shelf next to him.He had offered a genuine warning, a real chance, and the man looked at him like he was a stray dog foaming at the mouth."See? This is exactly why I don't bother." He muttered it to himself, barely moving his lips. "Even if I gave them a detailed timeline of the apocalypse, they'd ship me off to a psych ward."The shoppers nearby had ov
Chapter Four
Vivian stared at her phone screen, her fingers trembling so bad the phone nearly slipped out of her hand.She shoved it toward Gavin.The two of them pressed their heads together, eyes locked on those two lines of text. The color drained from both their faces at exactly the same speed.Daniel was going to take "their" twenty million and disappear across America? Over their dead bodies."He's lost his mind! He's completely lost his mind!" Gavin's voice came out in a hiss, low but vicious. His knuckles went white around the phone."What is a brainless cockroach like him going to do with twenty million? That money should have been ours from the start!"In Gavin Rourke's head, Daniel's inheritance had already been mentally deposited into his own account. Daniel trying to leave was like someone pickpocketing his own wallet."Vivian, hurry! Hurry up and hold him down!" Gavin grabbed Vivian's wrist, his voice cracking with urgency. "You're the only thing that idiot cares about. He'll listen
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