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2025-04-12 21:19:47
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance ON THE SLUMS OF PARIS
VINCENT MOREAULooking at Damian Blackwood as he told me about the problems that had arisen between himself and his wife, telling me the details just as he had from the very first instance of their saddening scenarios, I knew I would like him.Oh… do I need to introduce myself as Vincent Moreau, his friend?Maybe tell you a little about myself too…Paris is easily one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so they tell me, but it is hard to say it as a Frenchman myself, especially as one born in the densest slums of Paris, where the eyes refuse to see and the air stinks of rot and every shadow hides a blade. It was where I realised that watching my father, Édouard Moreau, was my first lesson, and it showed me how life chewed up hope between those rugged, closely packed houses we lived in. He had been a smuggler without much traction—a small-time criminal that always went chasing the next sourcd of his jobs—cigarettes, booze, fake watches, whatever he could move. For the longest t
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE SPIDER
VINCENT MOREAU I would earn the name ‘The Spider’ three years after that, when I turned twenty.It was mostly because I learned the one thing my father did not. To kill. The test of the story was because of something I did, something that brought my name to the Parisian slums. One lesson I learned just as early was that people liked smart people. When you did things that would ordinarily not come to their minds, they liked you and lived in admiration of you. For the gangs, they thought I was smart because I knew everything about everybody. I knew who was plotting to kill his boss. I knew who had done something to attract the Police. I knew who was sleeping with who’s woman. I knew who was going to die next.It made me highly covered, indeed, and in danger of death all the time. They would want to sneak up on me and beat what they wanted to know out of me, which was why I had to learn two skills I found extremely important.How to escape, and how to kill. I made money from both.I r
Last Updated : 2025-04-16Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE TRINITY
VINCENT MOREAU The time then came when the Spider found the web he had cast over Paris a bit too small.Something about the Parisian Mafia felt minor and small scale. Nothing much except bank robberies here and there, and a few drugs being sold about. I thought that if I could play the same game somewhere else, I would be far bigger. So I gathered all that I could and moved to America. In Paris, my network had become intricate, but it was limited as well.It struck me that I wanted more power, and a delicate web spun across petty thieves, small gangs and their occasional rivals was nothing. As far as I was concerned, the city’s underworld had grown stale—or I had rather grown past it—and its opportunities had become too predictable. I wanted to be bigger and better. I wanted to be a legend.In America, with its bawling population and rising powers, I thought I was promised a larger river to cast my net over. The continent called to me like the gold rush—a haven of men with greed and
Last Updated : 2025-04-18Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance BLOOD IN THE CITY
VINCENT MOREAU With them, our first big play was a heist.It was not the kind New York was used to, and the target was a man who laundered money for half the city’s elite. His security was top-notch with every kind of security that could be thought of—from biometrics to secure firewalls and armed guards.We were hard pressed to find a weakness to prod, but I figured it out anyway.His arrogance and the number of skeletons he had hidden in his cupboard.It was a game of chance we were playing when Lila breached his system, planting a backdoor that let us steal away $10 million during a crash into his systems. The skeletons in his cupboard, which we determined as his weakness, was the reason why he could not report it without exposing his own dirty deals, and he could only watch as we funneled the funds through shell accounts. The account was soon empty, and he almost went bankrupt.The heist put us on the map, but it also drew angered eyes who could not identify who it was. Everyone s
Last Updated : 2025-04-21Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A NEW CATCH
VINCENT MOREAU It would take years before I found another worthy catch. By then, my little circle and I had long gone apart, each deciding that it was time for them to do something worthwhile with what they had earned. I gave them all my blessings—did they not call me Father, anyway—and watched them build empires with what they owned.We paid good memory to Marco, a friend who was our favourite when he wasn't injecting himself with heroin. I never forgot that each time I looked at him, I saw nothing but a man who could have flown over the world but who found himself pulled down by his own weight. He could have escaped the night of Ricci's attack if he wasn't so laden with his addiction that he could do nothing to save himself. We knew it was why he truly died. It was why the words we put on his tombstone were clear:“A DEAR FRIEND WHO COULD NOT FIGHT HIS DEMONS.”We also gave half of his share of all our money to his mother and family. Of course it was more honourable to give her a
Last Updated : 2025-04-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A TIMELY WORD
VINCENT MOREAU He made sure to down the contents of his cup before returning his gaze to me.“My men should know about it. They would know from the moment Wesley Black snaps a finger.”“Wesley Black isn't as stupid and naïve as you think,” I corrected, recalling that it had taken far more sophisticated arrangements to figure the boy out. “His plans are elaborate. He has men who have been there since the time of his father and grandfather guiding him. You seem to have doubts.”“Of course I do. Wesley is too sweet a soul to plot against me. He loves me.”“I believe your men can find me for as long as I am in Vieuti. You have spies.”“Why do you ask?” He questioned, a scowl on his face.“Because in ten minutes, your wife will be kidnapped from the house she is staying in, the one in which your grandfather lived before his death. You have no time, and even now you might be too late to rescue her. If you go fast enough, you will find that the Lone Wolf has been sent to get her. Right now,
Last Updated : 2025-04-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE SEED
VINCENT MOREAU Damian Blackwood stared at me, his eyes narrowing.I knew he was coming to terms with as he processed my introduction. It was almost always daunting to my listeners when I told people I was the Spider, and I loved to watch them lose themselves to my spell and what I meant. The name hung in the air like smoke, curling around his thoughts, and he watched me with wariness lurking beneath his eyes. I only smiled.“You have to be French.” He observed.“I am.” I agreed. It was the hardest thing for me to deny, not with how often my accent gave me away, making it clear to everyone that English was not my first language. It did not matter to me either—as long as those who I had my eyes on were being affected by the poison of my words, I cared less for the accent.It was working on him, and I could see the battle between hesitation, caution, and need being waged in his mind, all three weighing the implications of partnering with a man like me who operated in shadows, who someh
Last Updated : 2025-04-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PIERRE
VINCENT MOREAU For a long time, romantics have thought of Paris as the City of Love. As a young boy who lived on those streets, I never saw why, though. There was not so much I thought was lovely about it. There were too many angry voices, fights in the streets, blood baths, and evil men for me to think too much about love in those times.It would take a bedtime conversation with Cassandra for me to understand that it was not as much to do with love as it was to do with sex. There was something about sex in Parisian streets, something that made you think you could get it with nothing but the blink of an eye. Something that meant you could get any kind of sex you sought, for there was always someone to provide. I thought this was no lie, and that there was a bit of truth in it.Years before I lost my virginity to that prostitute, I did something with a boy.It was not actual sex. But there is an awareness of desire that comes in your early teens. The stiffness between the groins and
Last Updated : 2025-05-01
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance TERROR
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD The gun in my hand was heavy.I had used many kinds of guns over the years, but this was one that particularly weighed me down, holding me to the chaos that had erupted in our home while having nothing to do with its weight. For all I knew, I had had many enemies like my father before me, but none had dared to come close to our home, both during his time and during mine. None at all.As much as I tried to keep myself in control, my heart kept on racing, the adrenaline rush that had come from tearing through the bedroom like a psychopath while searching for whatever clues that could have been left still in my veins. From where Eleanor stood by her dresser, her fingers dancing around the edge of the drawer she'd just opened, I could see that her face was pale but had somehow managed to be serene. Too serene, maybe. I could see the questions churning in her eyes, which I guessed were the same ones bubbling in my own. Someone had lured her out of the house, while making
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PANIC
ELEANOR SINCLAIR The outside air was bracing as I rushed through it, late autumn biting sharply at my exposed arms in the dress I had specially worn to please my now enraged husband, who was waiting. I tied up my coat and started off, my mind whirling with questions. Once again, I checked the number, and it was his. It had to have been sent to me in error, and it was going to be cleared up the moment she got home. The only thing that frightened me about it was that Damian hardly ever made such mistakes, and he would have checked it if it were her fault. As time went on and he did not call her again, she became more and more convinced that he truly did not send it. It was the one thing that bit at her.If Damian didn't send the message, who did, and why? On his phone, as well...The road was deserted as I stopped the only taxi in sight, the golden light of the afternoon fading into nothingness while being replaced by the streetlights that glowed as I passed through. My phone felt he
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance STRANGER THINGS
ELEANOR SINCLAIR The restaurant she sat waiting in was a soft buzz of clinking glasses and hushed tones.It was the kind of place Damian always chose as long as he wanted the meeting-someplace upscale but unostentatious, with soft lighting that cast a touch of intrigue and mystery over all who sat under it. I sat alone at our usual window seat, my hands tracing the edge of the silky white tablecloth in need of something to do while I waited, and my gaze cutting to the door every couple of seconds, just to make sure I did not miss him.Times were the best when he wasn't hitting me.It was what our marriage was sometimes. It could go from being sweet and enchanting to being a warzone, and I did all I could to make sure that I didn't displease him. Was that not the only reason we had fights, because it was all my fault?The waiter had already come by me twice, his smile polite but tightening each time my hand rejected his offer to place an order for me. "Just a few minutes," I had said
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance HIS RETURN
VINCENT MOREAU The plan was unfolding on schedule, and with all efficiency.I watched from my own safe vantage point near their home and with a pair of binoculars-from a dark alleyway behind a gnarled oak tree opposite the house. I caught her shadowy form leaving the house, and thought that it was going well enough. Perfect.Long, golden strips of light lay across the pavement from the late-afternoon sun, and there was a fine scent of long dead fallen leaves in the air. I spotted her slow, methodical walk, her coat flying slightly in the breeze, confirming that she had gone. The message I had sent-one painstakingly crafted to mimic Damian's brusque voice-had worked. To think she hadn't even hesitated, hadn't questioned, and had done it all for him without thought.That was Eleanor when it came to anything concerning him. Loyal, trusting, predictable.If only she knew how much this was going to cost her...I let out a heavy, tired sigh, quite rattled that I was sitting in a tree like
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PLOTTING
VINCENT MOREAU I do not know why it took me five years to finally do something, though. But I found myself staying in Vieuti longer than I had in any city since my dear Paris, and I like to think that it was because the place quickly became a sort of comfort zone for me. I invested my five million dollars with Damian and thirsted after his wife while harbouring secret plans to have him for myself. Oh... I still do not know why I was in for this couple. But it took me five years to decide that I truly wanted them apart. And when I moved, I struck right where I wanted. **The thing about Eleanor was that she rarely ever left home, which was a dent in my plans given what I planned to do with her. It was as though she enjoyed being indoors, and it was my first difficulty. To do that, I needed to do something believable. To execute my plan, I needed her out of the house more than anything else. It was a question that was almost difficult to answer...How was I to coax a woman who se
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE VISIT
VINCENT MOREAU I did not refuse when Damian invited me to come see him sometime after that.I thought it was a sign of good things, a sign that he was starting to trust me, and I chose to make the best I could out of it. So I took a trip from the hotel I was still living in-I had come to like the room I was in so much that I put away all thoughts of renting something more permanent and simply continued staying there. I had enough money to buy the hotel.Damian's mansion had been a profound revelation when I first stepped in. The sprawling on a raised part of the city that made it seem as though he was overlooking Vieuti's glittering skyline, with the building standing as a monument to his dominion of the city beneath him. The white, marble floors gleamed and shimmered under crystal chandeliers that were just as white, and every piece of furniture within the perimeter screamed of wealth-from hand-carved mahogany statues that sat here and there, gold-trimmed mirrors that were undoubted
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THREE PHASE CYCLE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD My footsteps echoed loudly on the marble floor of my home as I walked into it.Everyday, the weight of Vincent Moreau's words clung to me, as heavy as the file tucked under my arm which was slowly becoming a reminder of our discussion earlier that day, each word of his burrowing into my mind and turning it into a puzzle I didn't understand.'A chain. A beautiful one, maybe, but it holds you back.'Exhausted, I tossed the file onto his desk to relieve myself of it, but then it opened and the names of the nine traitors glared up at me, men who had turned and helped Wesley Black against me. It wasn't their betrayal that gnawed at me as much as the idea that I, Damian Blackwood, the untouchable king of Vieuti, was considered by these men to be vulnerable, predictable, and human. And they did not hesitate to use it against me. Not in the least.The door to the bedroom creaked open, and there she was. Eleanor, my wife.Her eyes were wary as they stared at me, and she froz
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PRISON IN THE EARS
VINCENT MOREAU Our eyes met as he set his glass down on the table with a clink, his fingers dancing on the rim. "You think I cannot do enough to protect what is mine?""I think you're trying to protect too much," I shot back, launching into a dramatic show that required descriptions of my words with my hands. "A man like you-ruthless, calculating, untouchable-doesn't need attachments that make him predictable and even worse, vulnerable. Your wife is not just a person now. She's a target, and every time you go home to her, or let her soften your edges, you're giving your enemies a path to your open self, something they will use against you. And believe me, they're studying it closely."Damian's lips twitched. It was not quite a smile, but something that showed how amused he was. "You've got a sharp tongue for a man of your age and status, Vincent. Most men would have lost it by now for saying half of what you just did to me. No one ever says that."I allowed myself a small smirk, mas
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PARANOIA
VINCENT MOREAU It was not surprising, then, when Damian Blackwood started to pay me attention.I knew he admired me—not in the way I would like, but he was impressed by how I managed to find out about Wesley Black and curb her kidnap just as it happened. So when he reached out to me for drinks a week later. I had a number of spies keep tabs on the Blacks, and waited for any tug of some unfortunate prey over the new web I had cast.Thankfully, there was nothing, not yet. Wesley Black had run off like a frightened dog with its tail between its hindlegs, and I waited for Damian so I could stun him with the names of the men who were involved in the plot, all of the nine former men of the Black family.Again, we sat across each other in the restaurant where we first met, sipping glasses of brandy. I handed him a file of the names he wanted which he flipped through, silently nodding his head. Then he kept it aside and continued to drink."They should never have dared to attack me,” he sudd
