Xavier :The tale of the broken

06. The trap closes

Three days passed quietly. Too quietly.

Liam didn't suspect anything. He moved normally, laughed normally, lived normally.

That was the problem. Men were most vulnerable when they believed they had already won.

I watched from a parked car across the warehouse district. Night again but this time I wasn't observing blindly.

This time, I was designing the outcome.

My phone vibrated once.

Unknown: Positions ready.

It was her. I didn't reply.

Headlights cut through the darkness as trucks rolled toward the docks the shipment Pakhan had spoken about. Security looked relaxed. Routine movements. Routine checks.

Exactly as planned.

Inside those crates were not just weapons. They were bait. And predators never recognized a trap when it smelled like opportunity.

A second car pulled into the shadows across the road.

Liam stepped out. Diego followed.

I watched them through the windshield, unmoving. They spoke briefly before his men began moving quick and organized. They’d done this before. They thought tonight was another theft.

They were wrong.

I stepped out of the car.

No one noticed me not yet. I wore a mask and used a voice changer to conceal my identity. I didn’t want Liam knowing about my second identity yet.

My position was deliberate just far enough to remain irrelevant, close enough to see everything.

Crates were transferred. Doors opened. Trucks loaded.

Ten minutes passed.

Then headlights appeared from the opposite side of the docks.

Not the police.

Black vehicles. Five of them.

They didn’t rush. They didn’t hide.

Liam noticed first. Then Diego.

Liam’s posture changed. Diego became tense but it was too late.

Men stepped out in silence. Suits untouched by the cold wind.

Movements coordinated. Weapons visible but not raised.

A message before violence.

Liam’s voice carried across the lot.

“What is this?”

No one answered him.

I walked forward slowly, hands in my coat pockets.

His eyes locked onto me. Confusion was clear.

“Who are you…?” he whispered.

For the first time since childhood, he looked unsure.

“You?” he asked, turning slightly. “You called them?”

He glanced at Diego.

“No,” Diego stuttered.

“You dare betray me, you piece of crap!” Liam shouted.

He laughed once disbelief.

“I can’t believe you stooped this low.”

One of Pakhan’s men stepped beside me.

That was enough.

Liam’s expression shifted. He understood.

“You… you’re working with him?” he spat, pointing at Diego.

Liam moved, wounded, disoriented exactly what I intended.

My smile was cold.

The trap had worked but not fully.

She had interfered.

I couldn’t fully trust her for that.

Yet I needed her. She knew the gate, the terrain, the angles, the patrols indispensable. And unpredictable.

Every move reminded me

Trust was fragile.

I spoke into the earpiece.

“Search the other side. Spread out. Track him. No engagement unless necessary.”

Liam was running.

“We found him,” I told Grandfather.

“Wait there and update me,” he replied. “I’m coming.”

I drove through red lights, arriving in forty-five minutes and stopping at a distance.

Liam was agitated.

An old man appeared with a few men guiding him.

The boss.

“We got him,” I whispered.

“All men, get ready,” I said. “On my mark.”

I waited.

“One… two… three.”

“Go.”

The old man fell. Liam ducked behind a car. His men moved fast, shielding him while returning fire.

I moved forward.

“Cover me!”

My men followed.

Shots rang out as I climbed to the second level, clearing every obstacle in my path.

I reached the old man.

“Don’t shoot,” he begged.

“Why shouldn’t I?” I asked coldly.

“I can give you everything money, women, cars, houses. Anything you want.”

“Not interested.”

Seven shots ended him.

One obstacle removed.

A message sent.

“Sir! Liam escaped!” someone shouted.

“He can’t run forever,” I replied.

In the following days, whispers spread across the underworld.

A new mafia name.

Pakhan rewarded me.

A villa in Mozhaysk. Cars. Businesses across countries. Staff.

A king’s life.

“Making quite a name for yourself,” she said.

“I don’t care what others think,” I said.

“Do you still hate your brother?” she asked. “Would revenge satisfy you? What matters more?”

A test.

“I won’t be happy until they suffer,” I said. “Until they beg.”

“And Liam?”

“I hate him.”

She studied me.

“Revenge is temporary. Control is permanent.”

I met her gaze.

“Did you predict this… or cause it?”

She didn’t answer.

“Does it matter…?”

"Liam disappeared into the shadows, but one thing was certain I couldn’t fully trust her. I knew what she had done that day at the warehouse.Yet I needed her, whether I liked it or not