218 The Stranger’s Rise
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Lucian
THREE WEEKS LATER
Every trail led nowhere.
We worked hard to avoid using the surname Nighthorn, it felt like a trap waiting to spring, but it made everything harder. We had no photo. No description. Just whispers and shadows.
The more time passed, the more convinced I became that we’d been led here on a leash, one Chase
controlled.
Still, I refused to call home. Every day, the urge burned in my chest, but I held back. I kept telling myself we were close, that it would all make sense soon. That I’d walk through the front door of our home and tell Mara
it was over.
But three weeks had gone by.
Nothing.
Bianca had done what she could. In the second week, she’d pointed out Justin, and we’d tracked him as quietly as possible. The team tried to catch him alone. They did, eventually. But it led to nothing but smoke and silence.
We were getting nowhere.
It was time for a shift in strategy.
I let Bianca go.
I used the account tied to my alias, Robert, and wired her the promised money. She broke down crying. She couldn’t believe the amount. She hugged me. Thanked me a hundred times. Said she’d finally get to see her son in Goldenpeak again.
And then she was gone.
I thought I’d done the right thing.
I should’ve known better.
Two days later, they came.
They didn’t knock. They kicked the door down. Four of them, masked, armed, fast. I felt the sting of a taser before I even reached for my weapon. Then came the silver, burning through my skin like acid.
They blindfolded me and threw me into the back of a van.
This wasn’t my land. This wasn’t my terrain. And I knew, instantly, I was in deep s**t.
Even blindfolded, my senses filled in the gaps. The van stank of leather, iron, and grease. We were moving for
a while. Eventually, I was dragged out, my boots scraping against what felt like concrete, dusty, old, broken. We entered a building. Wood. Cold metal. Rust. The scent of old chains and fear.
They forced me into a chair and cuffed me with silver.
< 218 The Stranger’s Rise
The pain hit instantly. It seared my wrists, sent fire up my arms. I screamed. I couldn’t help it.
Then the blindfold came off.
And the sight shattered me.
+8 Points >
My entire team was there, Denis, Jane, Lance, all bound in silver, beaten, bloodied, trying to hold it together.
But that wasn’t what wrecked me.
Bianca.
She was tied to a chair too, bloody, bruised, barely breathing. Her face swollen, one eye shut, her mouth trembling.
My stomach twisted.
She hadn’t run.
She’d been hunted.
All she wanted was to get home to her son. I had promised her that.
And now she might not live to see him.
I didn’t know who had us, or what came next, but one thing was clear:
This was no longer about recon.
We had been baited.
And Chase Nighthorn had just started playing for real.
“She was asking too many questions,” the man Bianca had identified as Justin said, turning a silver knife slowly in his hand. His voice was calm, too calm.
“That was strange, considering how tight-lipped she used to be. Then suddenly she packs up, tries to leave. I caught her before she could disappear… figured she needed to be reminded how things work around here.” He glanced back at Bianca, tied to the chair, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes fluttered weakly, but she was still alive. Barely.
“Boy, did she sing,” Justin said with a smirk. “Didn’t want to, but when her son came into the picture… well, everyone’s got a price.”
My stomach twisted.
“She told me about your questions,” he continued. “Got me thinking. Four strangers show up in Rewan. Same day. Same hotel. All from Mooncrest. All sniffing around for a guy named Chase. Hell, you almost had us fooled.”
He paced in front of me, silver blade catching the light as he turned it between his fingers.
“But here’s the thing, this place? It’s not what it looks like. We’re not just pimps and petty thugs. We’re here for one reason: to serve a very well-paying man. Mr. Nighthorn doesn’t like people looking for him. Our instructions were clear, anyone from Mooncrest asking for Mr. Chase or Mr. Nighthorn? Capture. Interrogate. Then eliminate.”
I swallowed hard.
We’d walked straight into the jaws of the trap.
We had nothing to go on except his name, and Chase had counted on that. He’d built the perfect snare. And we walked right into it.
Justin stepped closer. His blade hovered near my throat.
“Mr. Robert,” he said, using my alias. “Who sent you?”
That’s when I realized it, he didn’t know who we really were.
And that might be the only leverage we had left.
“Mr. Daniel Northwood,” I said quickly, calm and convincing. “He’s a business associate.”
Justin narrowed his eyes.
T
#
From the corner of my mind, Denis’s voice echoed through the link. What are you doing, Lucian?
Follow my story, I told them. Don’t break character.
Justin took another step forward, suspicion etched across his face. “Why would Mr. Northwood send you?”
“The Nighthorn family’s got him locked up on Mooncrest,” I replied smoothly. “Apparently, Chase is on the board of one of his companies. They won’t let Northwood go until he delivers Chase himself.”
I let a bitter edge slip into my voice.
“He sent us here to find Chase, to beg him, threaten him, whatever it takes. Either he turns himself in, or Northwood rots.”
Justin’s frown deepened. He stopped pacing.
I watched the flicker of disappointment cross his face.
He believed me.
He thought we were some desperate errand boys from a rival syndicate. That bought us time.
Maybe even a way out.
Now all I had to do was make it believable enough to live long enough to use it.
“I guess you lot aren’t the ones we were waiting for,” Justin said flatly.
Then he turned to the others.
“Well then, kill them.”
Just like that.
The command dropped like a hammer. Cold. Final.
The other men reached for their guns without hesitation. Trained hands, smooth movements. They weren’t bluffing. They wouldn’t miss.
My heart slammed into my ribs. I thrashed against the silver cuffs, every nerve screaming in pain. Useless.
I had never known real fear before, not like this. But now I felt it in my bones.
I had made a promise to Mara.
2/1
“Come home to me,” she had said.
I’d sworn I would.
But now I could see the blood, the screams, the moment they’d call her with the news that I was gone. That I had left her to raise our children alone. That I had lied when I said I’d be back.
And Denis, Denis. Just married. Keisha was pregnant.
Lance and Jane, barely nineteen. Their lives hadn’t even started.
I had brought them here.
I had walked all of us into this.
I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, not in surrender, but in prayer. A silent, desperate plea to the universe for a miracle. Any miracle.
“Wait,” one of the men said suddenly, hesitation in his voice.
My eyes flew open.
Not relief. Not yet.
“We need to call Mr. Nighthorn before we kill them,” he argued.
Justin spun on him, irritated. “We can’t reach him. He’s on assignment. In Mooncrest.”
My blood ran cold.
“He won’t answer. He’s preparing the army. The invasion. He won’t stop to answer a call.”
The words echoed in my skull.
Mooncrest.
He was already there.
While we were here, caged and clueless, Chase Nighthorn had moved his pieces across the board and was already setting the battleground on my island.
What would Mara and Darian do without us?
What if we never made it back?
Mara had been right. This was never a mission, it was bait. And I had walked all of us straight into the trap with blind faith and a fool’s pride.
Now, the war was starting without me.
And I could only pray… it wasn’t already lost.
