Calix's povI didn’t think twice about it. All that existed in that split second was Delilah’s wide, terrified eyes and the bastard pointing a gun at her chest. With a burst of speed fueled by pure desperation and an instinct that came from a place deeper than my rage, I lunged forward.A deafening shot rang out through the factory, followed by Delilah's loud scream. My heart stopped until I realized the bullet hadn’t touched Delilah. I didn't see where the bullet went, only that it missed her. It was a warning shot, a terrifying declaration of intent. I slammed my body into Silas before he could fire again, my shoulder connecting with his chest with force. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the gun clattered to the floor, skidding out of reach.We crashed to the concrete, fists and rage colliding. His elbow drove into my ribs, mine into his jaw. His teeth bared in a bloody snarl, mine clenched tight as I forced his arms down. His body, despite being older, still held a surp
Calix's povThe black SUV rolled to a stop, headlights dying out one by one behind me. My hands were white-knuckled and trembling slightly as they clutched the steering wheel. The city lights were a faint, bruised glow on the horizon behind me.I stepped out of the SUV, boots crunching against gravel and the doors closing behind me with a muffled thud. I was alone. My closest men had begged me not to come, their voices a quiet chorus of warnings.“It’s suicide, sir,” Mateo had said, his face filled with concern. “This is a trap. You’re walking into a slaughter.” But I had ignored them. Their pleas, their logic—none of it mattered. They didn’t understand. They couldn’t.Delilah was in there and her life outweighed everything. My empire, my pride, my own survival. All of that didn’t matter in the face of her potential death.I shut the door, the sound echoing in the quiet night. My gun was heavy in my hand, a weight I welcomed. I adjusted the grip, rolling my shoulders back.I looked up
Calix povHe licked his lips, a nervous, jerky movement. “Sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”My heart began to pound with a sick, furious rhythm. The betrayal, so sudden, so profound, was a physical blow. He was not just a man who had sold me out. He was a man who had betrayed my trust. Who had taken my money, my promises of a better life, and had used them to lead me to an empty field while Delilah was being held somewhere, suffering.“Don’t lie to me, Jones,” I said, my voice now a low, menacing growl. “Don’t you dare lie to me. Where is she?”He wheezed, hands clawing at my arm. “What’s going on?”My knuckles met his jaw before the lie left his mouth. His head snapped sideways, blood spraying from his lip. He stumbled, tried to straighten, but I was already there, grabbing his shirtfront and dragging him.“You’ve been feeding me lies,” I snarled, my voice a blade. “Every lead, every cold trail, all of them were yours.”“No, no. I didn’t…”“Then look me in the eyes,” I h
Calix's povThe silence inside the black SUV was a living thing, thick and suffocating. It was a silence broken only by the low growl of the engine. I sat in the back, my hands clenched into fists in my lap, my knuckles aching with a dull, constant throb. The men with me were silent, too. They knew better than to speak. They had seen the mask I was wearing, the one made of ice and steel, and they knew what lay beneath it.For hours, we drove through the city’s quiet, deserted backstreets, past rows of closed businesses and darkened windows. We drove around the suburbs and into the industrial outskirts, a landscape of scrappy cranes, tall silos, and abandoned warehouses. Each new lead was a promise, a fleeting rush of adrenaline, quickly replaced by the bitter, acidic taste of disappointment. The van we were looking for was like a ghost, its trail vanishing in the grid of the city’s surveillance cameras. It was a dead end.My mind was all over the place. Anger was a vibration in my ve
Calix's povThe sirens were a distant, wailing chorus, a soundtrack to my living nightmare. The mansion was a tomb, silent save for the panicked whispers of my men, the crunch of shattered glass beneath my shoes, and the sickening creak of a door hanging from a single, splintered hinge. The air, which had moments ago been thick with the cloying scent of gunpowder and fear, was now simply cold, a stark, unforgiving presence that made my lungs burn with every breath.I stood in the center of the living room, a place of opulence and comfort that now looked like the aftermath of a bombing. Overturned furniture lay in broken heaps, their expensive fabrics slashed, their wooden legs snapped like kindling. Bullet holes, dark pocks against the pristine white walls, marked the final, desperate moments of a fight my men had lost. But the physical destruction meant nothing. It was the quiet that killed me. The silence where her voice should have been. The stillness where her laughter once liv
Delilah's povI struggled against the bonds, holding me down.Julian tilted his head, his eyes glinting with a malicious satisfaction. “You were never anything more than a pawn, Delilah. A tool. You see that now, don't you? Nothing but bait in a game you never even knew you were playing.”The word ‘pawn’ was like a physical blow. It was so dismissive, so demeaning. And coming from him, the man who had pretended to care, who had feigned love, who had used my trust and my vulnerability, it was a special kind of hell.My stomach twisted, but I refused to let him see me falter. “A pawn? You’re delusional.”Silas chuckled from the shadows. “Julian is correct, of course. You are but a means to an end. The instrument of my vengeance.” He stepped forward, his cold eyes fixed on me. “But he has his own ambitions. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. A beautiful partnership, wouldn't you say, Julian?”Julian’s smirk widened. “Perfect. I get what's rightfully mine, and you get your revenge.”