Luca nodded once. Just as the first gunshot rang out. I was already moving before it hit the wall. Two enforcers flanked right. One lifted a gun—too slow.
I pointed my gun the first shot went to the throat. Second to the knee. He dropped hard.
Bullets went flying. Screams from inside the club. Somewhere behind me, Luca yelled something, and I saw the flash of his blade before a body collapsed to the ground. Two more men advanced. I didn’t hesitate. One to the chest. One to the face. Blood sprayed the sidewalk. My mind switched off to the noise and I saw it like I was trained too.
Luca swept the knees out from another, then used the man’s own momentum to slam him headfirst into the wall.
“Status?”
“Three down.”
“Two more.”
“Corner left.”
The last enforcer ducked behind a dumpster, tactical, but panicked. He aimed once. My bullet shattered his wrist before he could pull.
He screamed. I didn’t let him finish. Silence fell just as fast as the gunfire had started.
Bodies littered the alley. A Veil drone buzzed faintly above us, recording every frame. It was a reminder we needed to buy that fucking platform. The club’s backlight made everything look cinematic. I exhaled slowly, staring at the fucking thing.
“Cleanup?” Luca asked, wiping blood from his cheek.
“Already on its way.”
I looked up at the drone. And smiled bitterly.
Tonight served its purpose.
Don’t cross the Crow Dynasty. Don’t mistake syndicate for sovereignty. We left the alley as sirens started approaching, police. But not with any power. We owned them.
The moment I sat in the back seat of the car, it hit me. I pulled my phone from my pocket. The footage was already climbing Veil’s trending feeds.
Those fucking drones. I hated veil. Clips and because my luck fucking sucked commentary. Zoomed-in shots of me with blood on my hands, gun in one fist.
A quote from the video already circulating:“Let that be the reminder—I can make it end when I choose.”
I never cared what people thought of me. But in this moment all I could think about washer.
Madeline.
Watching it. Alone. Or worse, surrounded by people spitting facts about me.
She’d see the version everyone else already feared. The side that ruled Villain and kept the bloodlines trembling. And I wondered, would she still call meadorablein a quiet voice when I was flustered?
Or would she look at this. And finally understand why everyone feared me. Fuck. Maybe even she would agree.
I stared at the screen a little longer, then turned it over in my hand and said nothing the rest of the drive until we reach our second stop. The night moved on, even if my mind was frozen on one thought.
Luca was scrolling through his burner, blood across his jaw. He didn’t bother cleaning it off. None of us did. There was no point pretending we were clean men.
“Bastion needs you at the port,” Luca said.
“How bad?”
He didn’t look up. “He said it’s bloody.”
Of course it was. Everything Bastion touched ended painted red.
