“Don’t tell me what she must’ve done!” Victor shouts, the sound echoing off the metal walls. “Do you have any idea what’s happening right now?”
He’s holding a tablet. On the screen, a news alert flashes—a raid. Police. Dock seizure. The shipment.
Rico’s grin fades. “You’re kidding.”
Victor steps closer, jabbing the air between them. “They hit my container tonight. Millions—gone. And that girl’s still missing. I should’ve never trusted either of you to handle this.”
I open my mouth. “Victor—”
He doesn’t let me finish. His fist snaps across my face, a sharp, burning sting that rings through my skull. I taste blood.
Rico moves instinctively, but Victor’s already on him. A blow to the gut, another across the cheek. Rico stumbles, hits the concrete hard.
“You were supposed to bring her to me,” Victor growls. “Are you failures? Is that what my team has turned into?”
I can barely breathe through the throbbing in my jaw. “We’re not—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he says, and the back of his hand crashes into my mouth again. I hit the floor this time, knees scraping againstthe rough concrete. He follows that up with very strategically placed kicks.
My ribs ache with every inhale.
He keeps shouting, pacing, muttering about betrayal and loyalty. I can feel the blood dripping from my nose onto the floor. Rico’s coughing somewhere to my left, but he’s alive. That’s something.
As I kneel there, tasting iron and dust, I realize I’ve been afraid of the wrong person. It’s not Victor who should be feared. It’s what fear like his creates—monsters shaped by greed, convinced that pain is currency.
My uncle thinks he’s untouchable. But everyone bleeds.
Chloe’s words in that small notebook ring in my head.He said I was useless. I should’ve been better. I should’ve known how to make him proud.
That day, her shaking hands, the way she flinched when anyone raised their voice—it all makes sense now. The thing that broke her isn’t just her father. It’s the same sickness running through this family, this world. Control disguised as protection. Violence sold as loyalty.
I lift my head, look at Victor pacing in front of me, and it’s not fear that fills me anymore. It’s clarity.
He stops when his phone rings, growls something into it, then turns to one of his guards. “Get them out of my sight.”
The guard grabs my arm, pulls me up. I don’t resist. My head throbs, but my mind’s already moving.
Outside, the night is cool, the kind of quiet that hums just before dawn. Rico’s leaning against the car, spitting blood into the dirt.
“He’s losing it,” he mutters. “He’s completely fucking lost it.”
“Yeah,” I say. “We’ll figure something out.”
He looks at me like he doesn’t believe it, then climbs into his seat. He’ll crash somewhere, lick his wounds, pretend we can go back to normal. But there’s no going back.
When I step away, I pull out my phone. Benny’s number is still saved from the nights I slipped him pills—painkillers, mostly, stuff he’d resell on the side. Easy way to keep him loyal.
He answers on the second ring. “Yo.”
“It’s Miles.”
“Yeah, I know. You got something for me?”
“Need a favor.”
He hesitates. “What kind of favor?”
“The kind that stays between us. You still got that encrypted line?”
