Chapter 9 - Shadows and SteelIn total darkness, I was in my element. Years of night-vision training and close-quarters combat in hostile war zones made me a ghost in the dark.
Gunfire echoed through the warehouse, bright muzzle flashes cutting jagged lines across the blackness. Bullets whined off the concrete floor and embedded themselves into rusted shipping containers around me.
Bang! Bang!
I moved low and fast, sliding behind a steel drum as the first enforcer swept the area with blind fire. Anticipating his position from the sound of his heavy boots, I closed the distance in a fraction of a second, delivered a devastating strike to his windpipe, and disarmed him before he hit the ground.
The second enforcer yelled out, firing wildly toward my previous location.
I vaulted onto a stack of wooden crates, dropped silently behind him, and locked my forearm around his neck in a chokehold. Within seconds, he went limp.
In the center of the room, Liam was screaming in blind terror, crawling frantically across the concrete floor.
"Who are you?!" the woman shouted into the darkness, her voice tight with sudden panic as she clicked on a tactical flashlight attached to her pistol.
The beam swept across the room, searching desperately for me. As soon as the light hit the wall to my left, I lunged forward, kicking the pistol straight out of her hand. It clattered loudly across the concrete.
Before she could draw a backup knife, I pinned her against a steel shipping container, pressing my forearm firmly against her chest while keeping my eyes locked on hers.
"Tell me who sent you, and why you're hunting my brother," I demanded, my voice cold as ice.
The woman smirked, coughing slightly as she struggled for air. "You think... you stopped us, Isaac Perkins? Vance was just a local franchise. We are the syndicate's continental directorate. Your family is marked. Even if you kill me, another team is already heading toward your parents' house."
My heart froze. A chilling wave of adrenaline surged through my veins.
A diversion.
They knew I would track the signal. They had used Liam as bait to lure me away from the house while another unit went after Mom and Dad.
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I slammed the back of her head gently against the container, rendering her unconscious instantly. Then I grabbed Liam by the collar of his jacket, hauling him to his feet.
"Run to the car," I ordered furiously, shoving him toward the exit. "If my parents get so much as a scratch, I swear to God, Liam, I will finish what Vance started."
