The rain hadn't stopped since the night of the failed ambush.
It hammered the glass walls of Titan Skincare's top floor like a relentless drumbeat, a steady reminder of the storm Malcolm Veyra now found himself in. The city lights beyond the window glowed faintly through the downpour, but even their brilliance couldn't wash away the dark scowl etched into his face.
For the first time in years, Titan was on the back foot — and it burned.
Kade stood on the far side of the room, his jaw set as Malcolm paced the length of the conference table. The air was heavy, charged with a fury that could detonate at any second.
"You promised me results," Malcolm snapped, stopping abruptly. "You told me your people were ghosts."
"They are," Kade said, his voice low, steady. "But whoever's behind Eversage isn't playing defense. That trap wasn't some lucky guess. They knew we were coming. They planned it."
Malcolm's fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. "Which means someone is feeding them information."
"Or," Kade countered, "they're just better than us."
The words hung in the air like a lit fuse. For a heartbeat, Malcolm said nothing. Then, with a sudden, violent motion, he swept the contents of the table onto the floor — reports, tablets, and a half-empty glass of whiskey shattered across the polished wood.
"Better?" Malcolm hissed. "No. No one is better. Not in this industry. Not in my city."
He stalked to the window, pressing a hand against the cold glass as he stared down at the streets below. "Do you know how long it took me to build Titan into what it is? Do you know how many vultures I buried to keep it on top?"
Kade said nothing. He'd heard the speech before. He knew what followed.
"I crushed competitors before they ever saw me coming," Malcolm continued, his voice rising. "I bought senators. I bankrupted families. I turned rivals into footnotes. And now, after everything I've built, I'm supposed to believe some no-name startup, run by nobodies, is dismantling my empire?"
He turned suddenly, his gaze like a blade. "No. I don't accept that."
Kade folded his arms. "Then we escalate."
Malcolm arched an eyebrow. "Further than hijacking shipments and bribing suppliers?"
"Much further," Kade said. "We stop trying to hurt them around the edges and go for the heart."
"The formula."
Kade nodded. "We get our hands on that, and Eversage dies. It doesn't matter how strong their marketing is or how fast their supply chain runs. Without their product, they're nothing."
Malcolm stared at him for a long moment, then moved back to his desk. He pressed a button, and the wall behind him slid open, revealing a smaller, darker room — one most of Titan's executives didn't even know existed.
Inside were six people seated around a circular table, all of them dangerous in their own ways. Some were ex-intelligence. Others had run black-market operations for syndicates Malcolm had funded quietly over the years. Every one of them owed him their loyalty.
Kade followed Malcolm in, his expression unreadable.
"Gentlemen," Malcolm said, his voice calm once more. "We have a new assignment."
The man closest to him — a grizzled veteran with a cybernetic eye — leaned forward. "We heard about the ambush."
"And now you're going to fix it," Malcolm replied. "Our objective has changed. Forget the shipments. Forget the suppliers. I want the formula. Whatever it takes."
The woman seated opposite him — slim, sharp, with a voice like velvet — raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about corporate espionage on a scale that'll light up every regulatory agency in the city."
Malcolm smiled thinly. "Only if we're caught."
"And if we are?" she pressed.
"Then I will burn this company to the ground before they can touch me," Malcolm said coldly. "Titan dies on my terms, not theirs."
The silence that followed was heavy. Then the cybernetic-eyed man chuckled softly. "I like him. Always have."
Kade stepped forward, dropping a thin folder onto the table. "We start here. Eversage's primary research facility. Security is tight — motion sensors, biometric locks, reinforced vault doors. But every system has a flaw."
The woman flipped through the folder, nodding slowly. "We'll need inside access."
"Then find it," Malcolm said. "Buy someone. Blackmail them. Threaten their family. I don't care how you do it — just get me a way in."
"And once we're inside?" the man with the cybernetic eye asked.
"Copy the formula," Malcolm said. "Every detail, every compound, every ratio. If we can replicate it, we control it. And if we control it…"
"Eversage collapses," the woman finished.
Malcolm's smile widened. "Exactly."
Across the city, the rain had eased into a soft drizzle as Jason Yun stood at the edge of the Eversage lab floor, watching the final batch of moisturizer roll off the production line.
Even now, weeks after launch, the demand hadn't slowed. If anything, it was growing. Entire shipments sold out in hours. Beauty influencers called it a "miracle." Dermatologists requested samples for clinical studies. International markets were knocking at the door.
It should have been a victory lap.
But Jason wasn't celebrating.
Daisy approached from behind, holding a fresh stack of reports. "We've reinforced all major transport routes and installed secondary security measures at the warehouses. Hendricks is meeting with the customs board next week to streamline inspections. And Natalie is working on expanding distribution into the Western territories."
Jason nodded. "Good."
"And the team we captured during the fake shipment?" she asked carefully.
"Still refusing to talk," Jason said. "But we've traced one of their vehicles back to a shell company that's been laundering Titan's funds."
Daisy's eyebrows rose. "Proof?"
"Not enough to go public," Jason admitted. "But enough to confirm what we already knew — Malcolm's not done."
He walked over to the lab's observation deck, gazing down at the rows of gleaming equipment below. "He's regrouping. He's angry, humiliated. And that means he's going to do something reckless."
"Like what?"
Jason's eyes hardened. "Go after the formula."
Daisy's breath caught. "You think he'd go that far?"
"I know he will," Jason said. "It's the only thing that makes sense. He's not interested in competing anymore. He wants to destroy."
He turned back toward her. "Tighten internal security. Triple background checks on every employee with lab access. Anyone acting out of character — even slightly — I want to know."
"And if they try to breach the lab?" Daisy asked.
Jason's lips curved into a cold smile. "Then they'll wish they hadn't."
Two nights later, deep in a dimly lit dive bar on the outskirts of the industrial district, a man named Rafe slid into a booth opposite a woman in a tailored coat.
"You're late," the woman said without looking up from her drink.
"Traffic," Rafe muttered, glancing around nervously. "You said this was important."
"It is," she said, finally meeting his eyes. "How long have you been working at Eversage?"
"Three years," Rafe said cautiously. "Why?"
"Three years," she repeated. "That's long enough to know where things are. How things work."
Rafe shifted in his seat. "Who are you?"
"Someone who's willing to pay very well for information."
He stared at her, his mouth suddenly dry. "What kind of information?"
"The kind that gets you a new life," she said softly. "A better one."
Rafe's pulse quickened. He had debts. He had problems. And the offer on the table — even unspoken — was dangerous enough to tempt him.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
The woman smiled. "Let's start with how many people have access to the lab."
Back at Titan, Malcolm watched the rain streak down his window, a glass of scotch in his hand. Below, the city pulsed with life, unaware of the war being waged in its shadows.
Kade entered without knocking. "The team's in motion. We've got someone inside talking. Not much yet, but it's a start."
Malcolm's lips curved. "Good. Once we have the layout, the schedules, the personnel list… we move."
"And if we fail again?" Kade asked.
Malcolm turned to face him, eyes cold and unwavering. "We won't."
"And if we do?"
Malcolm smiled thinly. "Then I'll burn Eversage to the ground and salt the ashes."
Meanwhile, in the quiet of his penthouse, Jason poured himself a cup of tea and stared at the encrypted tablet glowing softly on his desk. A message blinked at the top of the screen from one of his private security contractors.
"We have chatter. Someone's trying to buy access."
Jason stared at the words for a long moment, then typed a simple reply.
"Let them."
If Malcolm wanted the formula, Jason would let him chase it — all the way into a cage.
The rain finally stopped as dawn broke over the city. The storm had passed, but everyone who mattered knew the truth:
This was the calm before something far worse.