MasukThe image of Dan in the lab still irked him.He got dressed and went on a drive. There was something that felt so wrong but he could not pin it. Revenge had clouded his senses and made him mad, maybe he was a man with a broken mind and he was being controlled by someone… Something. The club was built for secrecy. No neon, no music, just murmurs swallowed by velvet and smoke.Antonio sat in the farthest corner, where the light barely touched his glass. He didn’t drink. The whiskey was there to disguise intent, not to soothe it.Across from him, the man they called Reznik, the butcher, adjusted his cufflinks; it was silver and old, engraved with a family crest that no longer existed in public records. He was a man who controlled systems not soldiers. He wasn’t Russian, not fully. He was what happened when countries broke apart and their ghosts learned to trade information instead of bullets.“Your city is bleeding, I heard that you've paused trade” the man said quietly, his accent so
ANTONIOThe night stretched long and silent, broken only by the faint hum of the security monitors. Antonio had left the study when the transmission ended only to return a day after. He could never truly believe that the men hadn't torn themselves apart. He would have said Mikhail was running but he knew Mikhail too well to insult him like that. The brandy on his desk was warm now, forgotten. The footage replayed in his head, frame by frame, Jaylen in that lab, Mikhail watching, the tension like a thread pulled too tight.One should have fired. It would have made things a lot easier for him. If Mikhail had survived he would have found a way to convince him to kill Dan too as an act of revenge, if Jaylen had survived he would have promised him leadership, a cup of power in exchange for freedom. Bruno entered quietly, carrying a tablet. “We’ve got movement, sir.”Antonio didn’t turn. “From who?”“Dan’s network. Two of his men left one of the safe houses in Geneva three hours ago. The
The room was still. The sheets smelled like warmth and him. Diana turned in her sleep, her skin still sensitive from the sex they had some hours before. She reached out, expecting to touch him, but the space beside her was empty. The silence wasn’t silent anymore. Somewhere in the room, there was a voice, low, sharp, speaking in a language she didn’t understand but had come to recognize. Russian.She stirred, brushing the blanket aside and sitting up slowly. Her body ached, the kind of ache that came from both pleasure and exhaustion. The soft golden light of the early dawn leaked through the curtains, stretching across the room like slow fire.She heard him again. The words were clipped, harsh, like he was fighting to keep himself together. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and stepped out of bed. The floor was cold, grounding her in a way his absence couldn’t.Jaylen was standing near the window, phone pressed to his ear. His voice was quiet but carried a sharp weight. He
The city below him never slept. From the rooftop, Mikhail could see everything. He watched as the traffic crawled like veins, the lights flickering in broken rhythm, the faint hum of life that meant nothing to him. He leaned against the edge of the railing, his breath clouding faintly in the cold.The air smelled of smoke and rain. Perfect for hunting.He lit a cigarette and watched the ember burn down to his fingers before flicking it away. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He had steered away from the oath and he knew it bugged Dan. He knew it irked him but he didn't understand why he was still alive. He was hard to kill but Dan had men at every corner, waiting. Dan owned the shadows and commanded men that sat in high places. He was invincible and indestructible, Dan had made sure of that years ago. But death never liked to keep him long, even when he sought it out by himself. He has tried to take his own life countless times, he always woke up. He always found his way back. But th
JAYLEN I roll Diana to her back and pin her beneath me. My blood is firing and thoughts are running wild but everytime she moans my head quiets.“I wish I never left,” I say to her and she angles her head to look at me. “I don't think you had a choice, Jay. You were born into this… You were born because of it.”I bury my face in the crook of her neck and I press my lips against her warm skin. “Is there truly a way out if I can't remember my past? What the hell did they do to me? Everyday I feel less and less human.” She wraps her hand around my wrist and she brings her palm to my hand. I watch her with a little bit of confusion as she pries my fingers open to kiss my palm“I remember the first day I saw you. When you were playing with the other children, you were just new and you managed to have so many friends. I was a little bit jealous,” I chuckle as I watch her kiss all my fingers. My mind feels like a holy ground now and it's the quietest it has ever been. “I saw you days b
The halls were empty.Too empty.The smell of the lab had been long forgotten and their minds were concentrating on other things. Like the fact that there were too many padded rooms in the building. Their footsteps echoed against the tiled floor, bouncing off the walls like ghosts trying to find a way out. The smell of gunpowder still clung to the air, sharp and metallic. Jaylen’s pulse thundered in his ears as he pushed open another door, gun raised, eyes scanning every inch of the room. Nothing.No movement. No breath. No Mikhail.Only the faint hum of the lights above, flickering in and out of life like they were afraid to stay awake.“Clear,” Blade called from the far end of the corridor.Spade checked the next room. “Clear here too.”Jaylen exhaled slowly. “He’s gone.”Diana’s voice came quiet, trembling. “He wouldn’t just leave, would he?”Jaylen lowered his gun. “He's obviously playing some sort of game”"Why would he bring us here just to run away?" Blade asked "I don't thin







