CHAPTER 12

Nicholas drove in silence, his jaw tight, mind racing a mile a minute.

Clark’s voice soon came through his earpiece, breaking the stillness. “Boss, this guy is smart — real smart. He covered his tracks like a damn ghost. No cameras, no witnesses, nothing. It’s like he vanished into thin air.”

Nicholas’s grip on the steering wheel tightened.

“People like him don’t vanish,” Nicholas said coldly. “They hide. And every man who hides leaves a trail… no matter how small.”

Clark hesitated. “You think he had this planned all along?”

Nicholas’s eyes darkened.

“He’s been planning this since the day I killed his brother.”

And that’s what bothered Nicholas the most — Alex Grey’s brother wasn’t reacting emotionally. No reckless attacks. No stupid mistakes. Everything he did was calculated. Controlled. Patient.

That made him dangerous.

Nicholas pulled up outside one of his safe houses — an underground base nobody outside his inner circle knew about. If this was going to turn into a long game, he needed to be ready.

As he stepped inside, several of his men were already gathered, waiting for instructions. The energy in the room shifted the moment Nicholas walked in.

“Status report,” he demanded.

One of the men, Tony, stepped forward. “Boss, the car he used was abandoned at the port. No prints. Clean job. But… we found something.”

Nicholas raised a brow.

Tony handed him a small USB drive.

“This was left in the car. Almost like he wanted us to find it.”

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed dangerously. This wasn’t just revenge anymore — this was psychological warfare.

He plugged in the drive, and instantly, a video began to play.

The screen was dark at first… then a masked man appeared. The voice was distorted, but the message was clear.

“You killed the wrong man, Nicholas. Alex was innocent. But I won’t be. You took my brother… now I’ll take everything you love. One by one.”

Nicholas’s jaw clenched.

This wasn’t just about business or revenge.

This was war.

“And boss…” Tony’s voice broke through again, hesitant. “There’s more.”

Nicholas looked over sharply.

“He left a name.”

Nicholas’s eyes darkened like a brewing storm.

“What name?” he asked quietly.

Tony swallowed.

“His name is… Adrian Grey.”

Alex Grey’s brother.

Alive.

And coming for everything Nicholas had.

Nicholas leaned back, his expression unreadable, but inside — rage simmered.

Adrian Grey wanted war?

He just got it.

And Nicholas didn’t lose wars.

Nicholas sat there, staring at the frozen screen — Adrian Grey’s masked face still lingering like a ghostly warning.

So… this was the man pulling strings from the shadows.

A man like Alex — quiet, calculated, but never truly dangerous — could’ve never pulled this off. But Adrian?

Adrian was different.

He wasn’t making noise.

He was making moves.

Nicholas slowly stood, his voice low, deadly calm.

“Find out everything about him,” he ordered. “Where he’s been. Who he knows. Every fucking place he’s stepped foot in since Alex’s death. I want it all.”

Clark nodded. “On it, boss.”

Nicholas moved to the large map on the wall — pins, locations, routes — the life of a man always prepared for war.

But this wasn’t just any war.

This was personal.

Adrian Grey had escaped tonight because he wanted Nicholas to know he was here. This wasn’t luck. It was bait.

A message.

Nicholas’s mind replayed the video.

“Now I’ll take everything you love.”

For the first time in a long time… Nicholas thought of Chloe.

He had kept her at a distance for her safety. Built walls between them to shield her from this world.

But now?

Adrian knew about him.

And if he knew about Nicholas…

It wouldn’t be long before he found her.

Nicholas turned to Clark, his voice like ice.

“Double security on Chloe. Nobody moves near her without my clearance. Invisible detail — eyes everywhere. I don’t care if she hates it. Keep her safe.”

Clark hesitated for a second, knowing how stubborn Chloe could be, but nodded. “Consider it done.”

Nicholas exhaled slowly, his gaze hard.

Adrian thought he was ready for war.

He wasn’t.

Nicholas Kane didn’t play fair.

He played to win.

And Adrian Grey had just signed his death warrant.

Nicholas grabbed his coat, his movements sharp and precise. His mind was already ten steps ahead, calculating, analyzing, planning.

If Adrian wanted a war, then Nicholas would show him exactly what a Kane war looked like.

As he stepped into the elevator, Clark trailed closely behind, his phone already buzzing with orders being dispatched — extra men stationed at Chloe’s apartment, eyes watching every corner, every stranger, every shadow.

“She won’t like being watched,” Clark said quietly.

Nicholas’s jaw tightened. “She’ll get over it. I’d rather have her pissed at me than six feet under.”

When the elevator doors slid open, Nicholas stepped out into the underground garage, his black car already waiting.

He slid into the back seat, pulling out his phone.

“Get me Viktor,” he ordered.

Viktor — the ghost.

If anyone could track down a man like Adrian Grey, it was him.

The call connected seconds later.

“I heard about tonight,” Viktor’s deep voice rumbled through the speaker. “Didn’t think Alex Grey had any family left.”

Nicholas’s eyes darkened. “Neither did I.”

Viktor gave a low chuckle. “Looks like you pissed off the wrong ghost.”

Nicholas’s lips curled into something cold — a smile without warmth.

“Then it’s only fair I haunt him back.”

The car sped through the city, streetlights blurring past the windows, but Nicholas’s mind was already elsewhere.

Adrian Grey wasn’t just a threat.

He was a reminder.

That in Nicholas’s world, no sin stayed buried forever.

Not even a mistake like Alex’s death.

But Nicholas didn’t regret it.

If given the chance again, he’d still pull that trigger.

The only difference now?

He’d make damn sure Adrian watched his entire world crumble… before Nicholas buried him next to his brother.

Alive or dead — it didn’t matter.

Nicholas Kane always finished what he started.

And Adrian Grey?

He had just become target number one.

“Find out everything about Adrian Grey,” Nicholas said darkly, his fingers tapping against his knee in calculated rhythm. “His safe houses. His men. His habits. I want to know the air he breathes and who he trusts.”

Viktor hummed. “Consider it done. But I’ll tell you one thing, Nicholas — Adrian isn’t like Alex. He didn’t survive this long by being reckless. He’s smart. Patient. And cruel.”

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “So am I.”

The call ended.

Clark, seated in front, glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “Boss… if Adrian Grey’s really been in hiding all these years, that means he’s been planning this.”

Nicholas’s gaze darkened.

“He can plan all he wants,” he replied coldly. “But he made one mistake.”

Clark raised a brow. “What’s that?”

Nicholas’s jaw clenched, his voice low and lethal. “He touched my men.”

And that was unforgivable.

⸻

Far across the city, Adrian Grey stood in the shadows of an abandoned warehouse, the faint glow of a cigarette illuminating his sharp features.

“Did he take the bait?” he asked one of his men.

“Yes, sir,” the man replied nervously. “Nicholas is already moving.”

Adrian chuckled under his breath, the sound cold and full of venom.

“Good,” he said. “Let him come. Let him burn half the city looking for me.”

He stepped closer to the window, his icy gaze fixed on the skyline.

“I want him desperate. I want him angry. That’s when men like Nicholas Kane make mistakes.”

Pausing, his lips curled into a smirk.

“And when he does…I’ll be waiting.”

Because this wasn’t just about revenge anymore.

It was about legacy.

And Adrian Grey intended to carve his name into the bones of every man Nicholas loved.

Starting with Nicholas himself.

Nicholas arrived at the crime scene, his black car pulling to a smooth stop. The place reeked of blood and gunpowder — the aftermath of war. His men stood around, tense, silent, waiting.

Clark opened the door for him, but Nicholas didn’t move for a second. His sharp eyes scanned the scene from the car — calculating, cold, dangerous.

Another one of his men. Dead.

Executed.

Left out here like a message.

A warning.

Or worse — a challenge.

Finally, he stepped out, the soles of his shoes crunching against shattered glass and bullet shells.

“Tell me what happened,” Nicholas demanded, his voice low.

Viktor stepped forward. “It was clean. Precise. No traces left behind except the body. Single bullet to the head. No struggle. No witnesses.”

Nicholas’s jaw tightened.

Adrian Grey was taunting him.

No mistakes. No noise. Just death.

“He’s smart,” Clark muttered under his breath. “Moves like a damn ghost.”

Nicholas crouched beside his dead man, staring at the lifeless eyes that once looked at him with loyalty.

“This was my city,” Nicholas said darkly. “My rules. My streets.”

He stood, his presence terrifyingly calm.

“And he’s walking through it like he owns it.”

His eyes turned ice-cold.

“Not for long.”

⸻

Elsewhere…

Adrian Grey sat in a dimly lit room, a map of Nicholas’s territories spread out before him. Photos of Nicholas’s allies, safe houses, supply routes — all marked.

His brother Alex had died because of Nicholas.

Even if it was a mistake, Adrian didn’t care.

Mistake or not, blood was owed.

“You wanted a war, Nicholas?” Adrian whispered to himself.

“You’ve got one.”

And unlike Alex…

Adrian didn’t intend to die easy.

He intended to destroy.

Brick by brick.

Man by man.

Until Nicholas lost everything.

Chloe’s POV

The apartment was too quiet.

Too still.

Chloe lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the hem of her pillowcase. But sleep? Sleep had long abandoned her. No matter how many times she shifted, how many times she turned on her side, closed her eyes, or forced her mind to wander to anything else… her body refused to relax.

Something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

She could feel it — like a weight sitting heavily on her chest, pressing down until it became difficult to breathe. The air felt colder tonight, the shadows in her room stretched longer, darker. Every sound — the groan of the old pipes, the occasional car passing by, even the ticking of the clock — felt amplified. Almost sinister.

Her mind wouldn’t stop drifting back to Nicholas.

The look in his eyes when he dropped her off.

That edge in his voice.

Like a man carrying something far heavier than he was willing to say.

He’d looked… dangerous. But not just that. Troubled. Angry. Guarded.

Chloe sat up slowly, running a hand through her messy curls. The silence was maddening. The worry in her chest twisting tighter with each passing second.

Reaching for her phone felt almost instinctual. Like maybe, just maybe, hearing from him would quiet this storm inside her.

Her thumb hovered over his name longer than necessary.

Would he even care that she was worried?

Would he think she was being ridiculous?

Her lips pressed together tightly before she gave in to the ache in her chest and typed:

Are you okay?

Simple. Short. But honest.

She hit send.

And waited.

Staring at the screen like it held all the answers to the unease eating at her.

Nothing.

Seconds passed.

Then a minute.

Still nothing.

Chloe let out a shaky breath, flopping back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling once more. The emptiness of her phone screen felt like a response in itself.

A part of her told her not to care. That this wasn’t her world. That Nicholas wasn’t her responsibility.

But another part — the foolish, stubborn part of her heart — refused to let go of the worry gnawing at her bones.

Restless, she got up again, her bare feet silent against the cold floor as she moved to the window.

Pulling the curtain aside just a little, she peered down at the quiet street below. Empty. Still. Almost haunting in its quietness.

But her heart wouldn’t stop racing.

She didn’t know what Nicholas was doing.

She didn’t know what he was involved in.

But deep down… she knew something dark was coming. Something bigger than her. Bigger than him.

And somehow…

somehow, it was coming straight for her world.