chapter 9

Chapter 9

The bedroom door clicked shut behind them. Leo leaned against it, breathing hard, the fresh bandage on his side already spotting with blood again. Kai stood a few feet away, eyes locked on him like he was measuring every weakness.

Leo held up his phone. The photo from the unknown number was still burned into his mind. Kai years ago, standing shoulder to shoulder with men wearing Moretti colors. The message had been simple and brutal: Ask your bodyguard who he really works for.

He did not show Kai the screen. Not yet.

Instead he said, “We need to talk about tomorrow. My sister is in their hands. We cannot fuck this up.”

Kai nodded once, jaw tight. “We go in at first light. Small team. I take point. You stay behind me until we clear the building.”

Leo pushed off the door and walked closer. Pain flared in his side with every step but he ignored it. “And if the photo is real? If you have been playing both sides this whole time?”

Kai’s eyes narrowed. “What photo?”

Leo showed him the screen. The image. The message.

Kai stared at it for a long second. His face did not change much but his hands clenched at his sides. “That was seven years ago. Before I took this job. I was undercover. The Don knows.”

Leo searched his face for any sign of a lie. “Then why did someone send this now? Right after we killed Marco?”

“Because they want us fighting each other instead of them.” Kai stepped closer until they were almost chest to chest. “You really think I would protect you every day, take bullets for you, if I was working for the Morettis?”

Leo wanted to believe him. The way Kai had held him in the hospital bed, the way he had roared when Leo got shot, the way he looked at him like he would burn the world down. But doubt was a knife twisting in his gut.

“Prove it tomorrow,” Leo said quietly. “Bring my sister home alive. Then we talk about everything else.”

Kai grabbed the back of Leo’s neck and pulled him in until their foreheads touched. “I will bring her home. And if anyone tries to stop me I will put them in the ground.”

The rest of the night passed in heavy silence. They did not fuck. They barely touched. Leo lay awake staring at the ceiling while Kai sat in a chair by the window cleaning his guns over and over. Every hour a new report came in. The Morettis were moving more men to the docks. Security was tight. One wrong move and his little sister would be dead.

At 4 a.m. they suited up. Black tactical gear. Extra magazines. Knives. Leo’s side hurt like hell but he refused to stay behind. They met the small team in the garage. Six men total. The Don gave them one last order.

“Bring her back. Or do not come back at all.”

The drive to the old docks was quiet. Tension thick enough to choke on. Leo sat beside Kai in the back of the armored SUV. Their thighs pressed together but neither spoke. The photo kept flashing in Leo’s mind. Seven years ago. Undercover. The Don knew. It sounded clean. Too clean.

They parked two blocks away and moved on foot through the fog that rolled off the water. The docks smelled like salt and rust and death. Cranes loomed like skeletons in the dark.

Kai raised a hand. The team stopped. Voices carried on the wind. Moretti guards patrolling.

They took out the first two silently. Knives to the throat. No shots. Bodies dragged behind containers.

Leo’s heart hammered. His sister was somewhere in the big warehouse ahead. Eighteen years old. Spoiled like him but soft. She did not belong in this world.

They reached a side door. Kai picked the lock. Inside the warehouse was dimly lit. Crates stacked high. The sound of dripping water echoed.

A scream cut through the silence. His sister’s voice.

Leo moved before Kai could stop him. He ran toward the sound, gun raised. Kai cursed and followed close behind.

They burst into a large open space. His sister was tied to a chair in the center, face bruised, tears streaming. Four Moretti men stood around her. One held a knife to her throat.

“Drop the guns,” the leader called out. “Or she dies right now.”

Leo froze. Kai stopped beside him, gun still up but finger off the trigger.

The leader smiled. “Smart. Now the prince steps forward alone. The bodyguard stays back. We have a message for the Rossi family.”

Leo took one step. Then another. His side burned. Blood was soaking through his shirt again.

Kai’s voice was low and deadly behind him. “Leo. Do not.”

But Leo kept walking. Ten feet away. Eight. Six.

The leader pressed the knife harder against his sister’s neck. A thin line of blood appeared.

Leo stopped. “Let her go. You want me. Take me.”

The leader laughed. “We want both of you. But first we want to see the great Kai Nakamura choose.”

He nodded to one of his men. The man stepped forward holding a phone and played a new video.

It was grainy but clear. Kai seven years ago handing over documents to a Moretti boss. Laughing. Shaking hands. Then the date stamp changed. Only three months ago. Kai meeting the same boss in a dark alley. Taking an envelope full of cash.

Leo’s blood ran cold.

Kai’s voice cut through the warehouse like a blade. “That is edited. I never took money from them.”

The leader smirked. “Tell that to the prince. Tell him why you really took this job. Tell him the Don hired you to watch his son because he did not trust him. Or maybe you were sent here to kill him when the time was right.”

Leo turned slowly to look at Kai. His gun was still pointed at the floor now. “Is any of it true?”

Kai’s eyes met his. For the first time Leo saw real fear in them. Not for himself. For what this would do to them.

“Leo,” Kai said quietly. “I swear on my life. I am not working for them. But there is more you do not know.”

Before Kai could explain the leader gave a signal.

Gunfire erupted from the catwalks above. Hidden men opened fire.

Leo dove for his sister, tackling her and the chair to the ground. Bullets chewed the concrete around them. Kai returned fire, dropping two shooters instantly.

Chaos exploded. The team burst in from the side. Shouts. More shots. A bullet grazed Leo’s leg. He ignored it and cut his sister free with a knife.

“Run!” he shouted at her.

She stumbled toward the exit. One of the Rossi men grabbed her and pulled her out.

Leo turned back for Kai.

Kai was fighting hand to hand with the leader now. They slammed into crates. Fists. Elbows. The leader pulled a knife and slashed at Kai’s chest, opening a long cut through his shirt.

Leo raised his gun but the angle was bad. If he shot he might hit Kai.

Kai headbutted the leader, then drove a knife up under his ribs. The man gasped and dropped.

But it was too late.

From the shadows another figure stepped out. A man Leo recognized. One of his father’s oldest captains. The one who had been in every meeting.

He pointed a gun at Kai’s back.

“Kai Nakamura,” the captain said. “Time to finish what we started three months ago.”

Leo’s world tilted.

He raised his own gun and fired.

The captain dropped with a hole in his chest.

Kai turned, breathing hard, blood running down his chest from the knife wound.

Their eyes met across the bodies and spent shells.

Leo’s voice was shaking. “Tell me the truth. Right now.”

Kai took a step toward him. “I was undercover for your father the whole time. The recent meeting was to feed them bad information. But someone higher up changed the orders. I think your father is the one playing both sides.”

Before Leo could answer, red laser dots appeared on both their chests. Sniper rifles from outside.

A voice boomed over a speaker. “Drop your weapons. The docks are surrounded. Come out with the prince or we burn this place down with everyone inside.”

Kai looked at Leo. Blood on his face. Eyes hard with decision.

“We fight our way out,” Kai said. “Together. Or we die here.”

Leo gripped his gun tighter. His sister was safe for now. But they were trapped.

And the man he had trusted with his body and his life might have been lying to him from the very first night.

The lasers moved closer.

A single shot rang out from somewhere high above.

Everything went black for Leo as pain exploded in his head.

The last thing he heard was Kai roaring his name.

When he woke up he would either be free.

Or he would wake up to find out Kai had sold him out after all.

The real war was no longer against the Morettis.

It was against the truth.

And the truth was about to destroy everything.