Chapter 30
70%
X
Then one of my lead cars exploded.
No warning. Just fire and steel and screams over the comms.
Three of my best men. Gone in a flash. I slammed my fist into the dashboard, teeth gritted, fury cracking through my bones. I didn’t pause. I didn’t cry. I just looked at the carnage ahead and whispered, “You want a body count, Hakeem? Then I’ll give you war.”
I saw his convoy tear through the capital like he owned it.
They thought they were fast. They weren’t faster than me.
We hit a hard turn on Fifth Avenue and another SUV slammed into us full force, trying to end us there–but my men knew how to bleed for a cause. The bulletproof frame flipped. Metal crunched. Tires spun through air and I was upside down before I could count to three.
But I crawled out.
Bleeding from my scalp, shoulder out of place, fury burning hotter than pain. I didn’t stop moving. I pulled my Glock from my hip, limped through the wreck, and climbed into the second car.
The driver looked back, shaking. I said one word-“Drive.”
The city descended into chaos behind us. Civilians screaming. Police pulling back. Traffic frozen. Drones buzzing like flies above the glass buildings. I didn’t care about the cameras. I didn’t care that the whole world was watching two underworld kings tear each other apart
for one woman.
They could call it madness. I called it war.
We caught up with one of Hakeem’s trailing vehicles. My driver rammed into their rear axle. The SUV spun, glass spraying. I leaned out the window and fired four clean shots–tires blown. The vehicle crashed into the railing, steel folding, bodies slamming against airbags.
Still not enough.
They retaliated. Automatic fire lit up the streets. My men ducked. Bullets scraped my window but didn’t pierce the glass. We kept going. Motorbikes flew off curbs, engines screaming, helmets shattered.
I saw the lead vehicle turn toward the underpass.
I aimed again.
Fired.
Hit the rear window but didn’t break through. Bulletproof. Smart bastard.
“You don’t touch my woman and walk away,” I muttered low, reloading fast and wiping blood from my face. “I’ll carve your name into the pavement and leave your ashes there.”
Chapter 29
3/3
87.9%
23:03 Mon, Jul 21
Then we lost visual.
0
X
–
Ten fucking minutes of silence.
No eyes on the convoy. My GPS pings were scrambled. Our thermal drone was shot out of the sky. My jaw clenched so tight I thought it would crack.
Then my sniper’s voice came through, cutting through static like salvation.
“Sir. Visual. Black SUV, north tunnel. Left lane. We spotted a woman’s body slumped in the back. Still breathing.”
My heart stopped. Then it exploded.
“Do not engage unless fired on,” I ordered. “Stay locked on that car. I’m coming for her. You hear me? I’m ending this.”
I looked down at the blood on my hands, the wreckage in the rearview mirror, and the darkness ahead.
And I swore on everything I ever lost-
Hakeem’s not walking out of this. Not with his empire. Not with her. Not even with breath.
We made it back to the underground base by dawn. Only twenty of my best were left standing. Twenty out of thirty. The rest? Dead, bleeding in alleys, dragged out of burning cars, caught in the crossfire of a war no one saw coming except me.
The screens were lighting up the room like a funeral pyre. City on fire. Emergency broadcasts. International sanctions incoming. Masterson trade flags falling off docks. Planes rerouted. Crypto transactions frozen in mid–air. The world was starting to see what I’ve always known–Hakeem wasn’t a king. He was a cancer.
I didn’t speak.
I just stared at her photo. The one I kept tucked behind the encrypted server–Celeste, laughing during training on the island, her hair tied up, sleeves rolled, covered in paint after I dared her to repaint my walls. That woman. My woman. My reason for every bloody thing I’ve done since.
I crushed the whiskey glass in my bare hand before I even realized it. Blood dripping between my knuckles didn’t faze me. I welcomed the sting.
“She was my future,” I muttered, breathing hard, staring at the blood and the broken frame, “and now you’ll have none.”
I gave the nod.
Phase Two launched in less than fifteen minutes. My top hacker, Javi, started crashing Masterson’s offshore accounts one by one. We took down ports, docks, cargo manifests. I had eyes inside his crypto operations…shut them down and left every wallet signature traceable to a war crime. Nothing moved in or out of Masterson territory without my name
Chapter 30
23:03 Mon, Jul 21
70%
0
X
in its shadow.
And then I dropped the bomb. The kind of bomb money can’t buy back.
Footage. Crystal clear. Of Hakeem. With Harmony. Hands on her. Kissing her neck. Whispering her name like a lunatic in love. Footage of her flinching when he touched her. Of the bruises he left after the cameras cut.
I gave the world the monster behind the Masterson smile.
Politicians started backing off like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Syndicates who once shook hands with Hakeem were already calling me asking for protection. I didn’t answer. They weren’t getting safety. They were getting silence from me.
By nightfall, we had the coordinates.
His base wasn’t even hidden. The arrogance. An old military port, fortified with concrete blocks and snipers, rigged with motion detectors and flares. His idea of a fortress. My idea of a coffin.
I looked at my men. Bloodied, tired, wounded, but loyal. We didn’t need twenty. We only needed rage.
I led the breach myself.
Snipers were on the roof. I didn’t wait. I fired first. Took out two without blinking and told my boys to gas the windows. Tear gas in three sectors. Flashbangs in the hallway. We moved like we owned the fucking place. Because we did.
That’s when her voice came through.
Soft. Faint. Coming from the old mic line Javi tapped through their comms. “Cassian… I’m still here.”
I stopped breathing.
“Say it again,” I whispered into my earpiece, and I heard it.
“I’m still here.”
