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CHAPTER 17
publish date:
2026-02-08 00:53:50
Latest chapter
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 110
"Come to me, Leo."I held out my hand. The boy didn't move. He stood in the slush between Vesper’s vanishing shadow and the open door of Julian’s black SUV. His small chest rose and fell in quick, shallow hitches. He looked at the blood on Ignatius’s jumpsuit. Then he looked at my eyes."Raffy?" He didn't say it. He mouthed it. Silence hung heavy over the forest clearing."It's okay." I stepped closer. "The wolf is gone. You're with me now."He lunged. A small, heavy weight slammed into my knees. His fingers buried themselves in the fabric of my trousers, clutching so hard his knuckles turned white. He didn't cry. He didn't make a sound. He just pressed his face against my thigh and disappeared into the silence."He doesn't talk much, does he?" Julian stood by the car door, checking his gold watch. "The Volkovs always were a quiet brood. Usually means they’re counting the ways to kill you.""He’s three, Julian. Give him a minute." I scooped the boy up. He clung to my neck, his small h
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 109
"Step back, Ignatius."I walked into the center of the bunker. The air tasted like copper and old rot. Vesper still had the remote, her knuckles white, her thumb twitching over the plastic button. She looked at me. Not at the boy. At me."You think you’re the one who calls the shots now?" Vesper spat. Her eye was swelling shut where the whistle hit it. "You’re nothing but a pretty face for the cameras. A placeholder. The Council wants the blood. They don't care which body it sits in.""The Council wants stability." I kept my voice flat. Professional. "You think you’re delivering an heir? You’re delivering a death warrant. For yourself.""I’m the one holding the trigger.""And triggers get pulled." I stopped five feet from her. I didn't reach for a gun. I adjusted my cuffs. "Think about the math, Vesper. The moment Julian’s men take Leo, you’re an loose end. You know the locations of the Alpine chalets. You know the encryption for the Marseille accounts. You’ve seen the Demon’s face wi
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 108
"Close the city."I didn't wait for a reply. I threw the phone onto the Ferrari’s dashboard. The satellite link was live, a jagged green line cutting through the encrypted noise of the Saint network."Raffy, you can't block Berlin." Ignatius slammed the wheel. We swerved around a stalled Opel. "The German authorities—""I don't care about the authorities. I pay the men who pay the authorities." I checked the clip on the submachine gun. The brass casing bit into my thumb. "I flagged every black Mercedes and SUV in the metro area as a terror threat. The GPS on their van just hit a dead zone near Teufelsberg.""The old listening station?""Further down. The bunkers." I leaned back. My heart pounded against my ribs like a trapped bird. "Vesper’s going to ground. She’s not trying to leave. She’s trying to wait for the Council to pick up the package.""He's not a package." Ignatius’s voice was thick. He wiped snot from his lip with the back of his hand. "He's three, Rafferty. He's probably
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 107
"He’s gone."Ignatius’s knees hit the frozen dirt. The van’s exhaust hung in the mountain air like a ghost. He didn't move. Didn't breathe. His fingers clawed into the frost, dragging through the mud until his nails bled. "Raffy... he’s gone. They took him. My boy.""Shut up, Ignatius." I stood over him. The cold was a knife in my lungs. My shadow stretched long and jagged across his shaking shoulders. "Get up.""I failed him." Snot mixed with the blood on his lip. He wiped his face with a trembling hand, smearing the mess across his cheek. "I failed you. I—I didn't mean for this. I thought I was protecting... please. Forgive me. Raffy, please.""Forgive you?" I grabbed his collar. I hauled him up. His weight was dead, a sack of regret. I slammed him back against the rough stone of the fountain. His head thudded. "You think I give a fuck about your tears?""I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.""You hid a son from me." I leaned in. My nose brushed his. I could smell the stale sweat and the metall
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 106
"Don't move, Leo."Ignatius’s voice cracked. The Beretta was a heavy weight in his hand, the barrel drifting toward the frost-covered grass. His knuckles were raw, bleeding from the earlier scramble, but his eyes were fixed on the boy."Is he going to hurt me, Mama?"The boy didn't look at Ignatius. He looked at Vesper. His small hand was tucked into her grey coat pocket. He stood perfectly still. No crying. No shaking. Just that cold, level gaze I’d seen in every mirror of the Volkov estate."He won't hurt you." Vesper’s fingers smoothed the boy's dark curls. She looked at Ignatius. A thin, sharp smile touched her lips. "He doesn't have the stomach for it. Do you, Ignatius? You spent three years in a cage dreaming of a life you’d never have. Did you ever dream of him?""I didn't know." Ignatius’s chest heaved. He looked at me, then back at the boy. "I never—""Of course you didn't." Vesper stepped forward, pulling Leo with her. "Cane wasn't a fool. He knew your 'devotion' to Rafferty
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN 105
"Who gave you the right to come here?"I stood in the shadow of a crooked oak, the German wind biting through my thin jacket. Ignatius didn't turn. He remained a statue against the low stone wall of the village square. He was staring across the street, his knuckles white as he gripped a rusted iron railing."I told you to stay at the chalet, Raffy." His voice was a dead, hollow thing. "The sensors were for your protection. Not for you to bypass.""I don't need protection from you." I stepped closer. My boots crunched on the frozen gravel. "And I don't need you to kill ghosts. I want to see them for myself.""There." He pointed. His finger was trembling. Just a fraction. "Look at the gate."I followed his gaze. A small school sat at the end of the cobblestone path. It was an old building, ivy-choked and quiet. A bell rang—a sharp, tinny sound that cut through the mountain air. Doors swung open. A flood of children in thick coats spilled out, laughing, screaming, puffing clouds of steam
MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN CHAPTER 63
"You’re talkative today, Elias. Usually, you just grunt and point at the whiskey."Rafferty wiped a smear of blue paint from his thumb onto his stained apron. The wood of the bar top was cool, scarred by decades of spilled spirits and salt air. He leaned his weight on his elbows. His voice came out
Last Updated : 2026-04-02MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN CHAPTER 43
"Sign the damn paper, Leo. It’s over."Rafferty pushed the single sheet of vellum through the metal slot at the bottom of the reinforced glass. The overhead fluourescents buzzed, a dying insect noise that echoed off the cinderblock walls. The visitation room smelled of bleach and stale sweat.Leo d
Last Updated : 2026-03-27MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN CHAPTER 44
Rafferty gripped the leather handle of the door, his knuckles white against the dark grain. The engine of the black sedan idled, a low, wet growl in the flooded gutter of the industrial district. Rain hammered the roof, a rhythmic assault that drowned out the city’s distant hum."Street’s blocked b
Last Updated : 2026-03-27MY BESTFRIEND’S BROTHER, MY RUIN CHAPTER 41
"Ignatius, stop. You're shaking like a leaf."The elevator hummed, a low vibration beneath the soles of Rafferty’s polished shoes. The brushed steel walls reflected a distorted version of the two men. One stood straight, encased in a midnight-blue suit that felt more like Kevlar than wool. The othe
Last Updated : 2026-03-26
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