In the underworld of Eastern Europe, loyalty was a currency, and Owen Shaw had been investing for years. Precision-driven, cold as steel, and a tactician at heart—he didn't seek power for chaos. He sought it for purpose.
And purpose arrived in the form of a private encrypted message. No ID. Just a voice he remembered from months ago.
Cipher.
"Mr. Shaw," her sultry tone came through the line. "You've been busy building a crew. I admire ambition. I'm willing to test yours."
Owen leaned back in his chair, the glow of the laptop illuminating his sharp features. "Talk fast."
"There are three items. High-tech components spread across Europe. Military-grade and off-books. You get them, you keep the payout. I get what I want. Maybe your brother even takes you seriously for once."
Owen's brow twitched.
"I don't work for ghosts."
"But you'll work for leverage," Cipher countered. "Do this right… and I'll make sure Devon sees you."
The line went dead.
Owen stared at the blank screen for a moment. Then stood.
"Gear up. We've got work."
Over the Next Few Weeks
Owen assembled a crew: elite drivers, ex-special forces, and weapons smugglers. Each mission took them deeper into the shadows. The first job stealing a biometric-controlled ignition core from an MI6 black site was flawless. The second a high-speed intercept on a NATO train carrying EMP charges cost them a man, but they walked away with the payload.
Then came the third.
A contact in Spain tipped him off about a woman highly trained, brutal in combat, skilled behind the wheel, and with no past. Amnesiac. Alive, but detached.
Letty Ortiz.
He found her in an underground racing circuit, moving like instinct drove her instead of memory. Fast. Clean. Deadly.
He watched her win a street race in Madrid without blinking once. Afterward, he approached her in the shadows, not as a recruiter, but as someone who understood what it meant to be a ghost.
"You don't know who you are," he said, tossing her a bottle of water.
She didn't look surprised. "You think you do?"
"I know what I'm building. And I know you've got nowhere else to go."
She narrowed her eyes. "You don't know anything about me."
"No," Owen admitted, "but I do know you don't flinch at speed, you don't hesitate to fight, and you don't back down from a challenge."
He pulled out a dossier. Letty's file what remained of it.
"I also know someone's looking for you. Someone you might've loved."
Letty hesitated, staring at the folder… then set it down.
"If I join, I don't want past stories. Just forward motion."
Owen smiled faintly. "We're building something better than the past."
She joined the next day.
Weeks Later – London
With all three items acquired, Owen delivered the final package to Cipher's intermediary. He received encrypted blueprints in return tech so advanced it could hijack satellite defense networks and disable whole cities.
But more than that, Owen had something else now.
A crew. A purpose. And Letty, a weapon he didn't fully understand yet.
He watched the file on his screen. A black-market weaponized computer chip called Project Nightshade the item that would become the center piece .
Cipher had plans. But so did Owen.
Because after all this?
He wasn't just going to be Devon's younger brother.
He was going to show the world he was a king in his own right.