Chapter Nine: Beneath the Smoke
The convoy tore through the streets of downtown Veritas at speeds that defied the city's silence. Four black SUVs, windows tinted so dark they swallowed the night, cut across intersections like fangs through flesh. Sirens were silenced—this wasn't a police response. This was war in motion.
Dante sat in the lead vehicle, eyes forward, hands clenched so tight the veins in his arms looked like raised scars. Evelyn was beside him, her knuckles white against her thigh. Neither of them spoke.
There was nothing left to say.
The phone call with Leo played in Evelyn's head on loop, each word a dagger to her chest.
"Mommy… there's a man outside."
It wasn't just the fear in Leo's voice. It was the restraint. The way he had whispered. The way he had known not to scream.
He's been trained, she thought. He's six years old, and he already knows how to survive.
And that terrified her more than the man on the street.
Dante's voice broke the silence.
"If it's Valen—"
"It is."
"You didn't see him."
"I don't need to. That's his way. He doesn't come through the door. He stands outside and waits… until you open it yourself."
Dante looked at her, the anger in his face eclipsed only by something colder. "Then we don't wait. We hunt."
The convoy skidded to a stop in front of the twins' apartment complex. Men spilled from the vehicles like shadows. Guns drawn. Orders barked. The air was thick with urgency.
Evelyn was first through the door.
She didn't wait for the elevator. She ran—four flights up, breath burning, fear pounding in her veins like a war drum. Her fingers fumbled at the lock. She burst into the apartment.
"Leo? Luca?"
No answer.
She turned toward the hallway—and froze.
Leo was there.
Standing just outside the bedroom, Luca behind him, both of them holding kitchen knives. They didn't cry. They didn't call out. They stood like sentries.
"Put those down," she whispered, kneeling.
Leo hesitated—then dropped the knife and ran into her arms. Luca followed a beat later, the stuffed lion still clutched tight in his hand.
Evelyn wrapped her arms around both of them and just held on.
Dante entered moments later, eyes scanning the room like he expected blood on the walls.
"Any signs of entry?" he called to the men.
"None," Luca answered from the hallway. "But there were footprints in the alley. Size twelve. Military soles. Fresh."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Valen had been here.
And he had walked away—on purpose.
"Why leave if he came to take them?" Dante asked quietly, watching Evelyn.
She rose, her voice steady now. "Because this wasn't about taking. This was about warning."
Leo looked up at her. "He smiled, Mommy. When he saw me… he smiled."
The words gutted her.
Valen Cortez didn't smile. Not unless he already owned something. Not unless he believed it was his.
She looked at Dante. "We have to move them."
"To where?"
"Somewhere he's never touched. Not the club. Not the safehouses. Somewhere we'd never go unless we were desperate."
Dante frowned. "You mean…"
"Yes," she said. "My father's estate."
He stared at her like she'd just suggested they dig up the devil.
"You swore you'd never go back there."
"I didn't. But now it's the only place left he'd never look."
Dante paced, hand on his holster. "We don't even know if your father's men are still loyal."
"They're not loyal to him," she said. "They're loyal to me."
"And what happens when Valen finds it anyway?"
"Then we'll be ready."
---
Valen Cortez was not a man who needed light.
He stood in the dark room of an abandoned church three blocks from the twins' apartment, rain still drying on his coat. The candle on the altar flickered softly, casting wild shadows across the cracked stone.
Behind him, a man in a mask waited—silent, nervous.
"She saw me," Valen said, voice calm.
"No, sir. She couldn't have—"
"She felt me." He turned. "There's a difference."
The masked man shifted. "What do you want us to do next?"
Valen stepped toward him, his expression unreadable.
"I want you to wait."
"For what?"
"For the fire," Valen said. "Let them move. Let them panic. When they think they've outplayed me... then we burn it all."
He reached for a candle and snuffed it out with his fingers.
"Start with the boy's school. Quiet. No bodies. Just the message."
The masked man hesitated. "That's a bit… loud."
Valen's eyes gleamed. "It's not loud if no one's left to scream."
---
Later That Night – Obsidian Club Safehouse, outskirts
The twins were asleep again, tucked inside a bunker-like room beneath the safehouse Evelyn hadn't entered in almost a decade. The walls were steel-reinforced. No windows. No exits but one.
Dante stood by the door, watching Evelyn watch them.
"You were right," he said finally. "He's playing with us."
Evelyn didn't look away from her sons. "He always did. He used to break bones just to watch them heal wrong."
Dante crossed his arms. "What did he want with you, Evelyn?"
She flinched.
"I don't know," she lied.
He watched her for a long moment. "You said that too easily."
"I've had practice."
He took a breath, then let it go. "I'm not the same man you ran from."
"I know," she said. "That's what scares me."
He paused, stepping closer. "Do they know?"
Evelyn finally looked at him. "What?"
"About him. About who he might be."
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "No. And they never will."
Dante's jaw tensed.
Outside, the wind howled, rattling the steel.
Inside, Evelyn closed her eyes and made a silent promise:
If Valen Cortez wanted a war—
He was going to get one.