Chapter 4
I woke up at 4:37 a.m.
To the sound of whispering.
I opened my eyes just a crack.
Leo was standing by the fireplace.
Mia was kneeling in front of him.
She had something in her hand.
A handgun.
Smaller than the one in Leo’s backpack.
Silver.
“Rule number one,” Mia whispered. “Never point it at anything you don’t intend to kill. Rule number two—always assume it’s loaded. Rule number three—your first shot needs to be your last. Because if they’re still standing after you shoot them, they’re going to be very, very angry.”
She handed the gun to Leo.
He held it like it was an extension of his hand.
Like he had been born holding it.
“Show me,” Mia said.
Leo checked the chamber.
Released the magazine.
Checked the rounds.
Slid it back home.
Cocked it.
Safety on.
All in under three seconds.
Mia raised an eyebrow.
“Your dad teach you that?”
“Every Sunday morning for three years,” Leo said. “Said if I was old enough to know the family business, I was old enough to defend it.”
Mia nodded.
Satisfied.
“Good. Today we learn to hit what you aim at.”
She saw me watching.
She didn’t look embarrassed.
Didn’t look away.
“Go back to sleep,” she said. “Big day today.”
I closed my eyes.
But I didn’t sleep.
An hour later, the smell of coffee and bacon woke me for real.
Elena was on the phone at the kitchen table.
Her voice was low and urgent.
“I need you to listen to me very carefully… Yes, it’s really him… I wouldn’t call if it wasn’t life or death… The cabin in the Catskills… Three hours. Come alone. If you’re followed, don’t bother coming at all.”
She hung up.
Dialed the next number.
Mia was cleaning her rifle at the counter.
Leo was eating three pieces of bacon like it was the most normal morning in the world.
“How many have you called?” Mia asked.
“Three so far,” Elena said. “Two said yes. One hung up on me.”
“Coward,” Mia said. “Good riddance. We don’t need people who run when things get hard.”
By noon, people started arriving.
First was a man named Jax.
Late thirties.
Shaved head.
Tattoos covering his neck and arms.
Muscles like he was carved from granite.
He walked in, looked around, spotted Leo, and dropped to one knee.
“Your dad saved my life in Afghanistan,” he said. “Pulled me out of a burning Humvee when everyone else said I was gone. Owe him everything. Whatever you need, kid. I’m yours.”
Next was a woman named Zero.
That was the only name she gave.
Mid-twenties.
Pale skin.
Black hair dyed blue at the ends.
She carried a backpack full of laptops and cables.
She didn’t say hello.
She just sat down at the table, opened her computers, and started typing.
“Richard paid for my sister’s cancer treatment,” she said without looking up. “She’s alive because of him. I can get into any system on the planet. Give me twenty-four hours, and I’ll own every phone, every computer, every bank account Adrian Cole has ever touched. He won’t be able to buy a cup of coffee without me knowing.”
Then came Marcus.
The security guard from the bank.
He showed up with three duffel bags full of guns and ammo.
“Quit my job,” he said. “Figured you might need me. Richard gave me a job when nobody else would. Hired me straight out of prison. Said everyone deserves a second chance. I’m not letting his boy down.”
By sunset, there were seven of us.
Seven people who owed Richard Voss everything.
Seven people ready to die for his son.
We sat around the big table in the main room.
Maps of the city were spread out.
Photos of the twelve board members taped to the wall.
Zero had pulled up everything she could find on each of them.
Homes.
Wives.
Mistresses.
Kids.
Secret bank accounts in the Caymans.
Criminal records they thought were buried.
“Okay,” Jax said. “Here’s the problem. The proof is in the vault at 1407 Broadway. Forty-second floor. That building is a fortress. Security at every entrance. Guards with automatic weapons. Biometric locks on the elevators. The floor itself is a sealed bubble—once you’re in, there’s no way out except through the front door. And Adrian Cole has turned that entire floor into his personal command center since Richard disappeared. He’s there twenty hours a day. Surrounded by at least a dozen private security. Ex-military. Black ops. The best money can buy.”
“So we don’t go through the front door,” Mia said.
Jax nodded.
“Service shafts. There’s an old freight elevator that runs from the sub-basement all the way to the roof. It was decommissioned ten years ago. Sealed off. But the blueprints show it’s still structurally sound. If we can get into the sub-basement, we can climb the shaft. Cut through the wall on forty-two. Grab the proof. Get out before anyone knows we were there.”
“Time frame?” Elena asked.
“Ten minutes from the second we cut through the wall to the second we’re back in the shaft. Any longer, and they’ll lock the building down. We’ll be trapped like rats.”
“Who goes?” Marcus asked.
Jax looked at the table.
“Me. Marcus. Mia. We’re the only ones with the training.”
“Absolutely not,” Elena said. “It’s too dangerous. All three of you could get killed.”
“Elena,” Jax said gently. “People are already trying to kill us. The only question is whether we die on our knees or fighting back.”
Leo had been quiet the whole meeting.
Now he spoke.
“I’m going too.”
Every head turned.
“No,” Elena said immediately. “Absolutely not. You are staying here where it’s safe.”
“Safe?” Leo stood up. He was so small. But when he spoke, the whole room listened. “There is no safe. Not for me. Not anymore. Those men killed my dad. They want to kill me too. And I’m tired of hiding. Tired of running. If we’re going to get the proof that puts them all away, I’m going to be there. Because that vault—only my biometrics will open it. Dad set it up that way. His thumbprint and mine. Both required. You can’t get in without me.”
Silence.
Elena looked at Zero.
Zero nodded.
“He’s right. I just pulled the vault specs. Dual biometric. Richard Voss and Leo Voss. No key. No override. No way around it. Without Leo, that vault stays closed.”
Elena closed her eyes.
She looked like she was going to be sick.
“Then we do it tomorrow night,” Jax said. “Full moon. Less light. We move at 2:00 a.m. Zero hacks the building’s power grid five minutes before we enter. Kills all the lights. All the cameras. All the electronic locks. Gives us a twelve-minute window before the backup generators kick in. That’s all we need.”
He looked at Leo.
“You okay with this, kid? Once we go in, there’s no turning back.”
Leo reached into his waistband.
Pulled out the small silver gun Mia had given him that morning.
He checked the chamber.
Spun the cylinder.
Click.
Click.
Click.
“I was born ready,” he said.
That night, nobody slept much.
I sat on the porch with Mia.
The stars were bright out here.
No city lights to drown them out.
“You really think this is going to work?” I asked.
Mia took a sip of whiskey from a flask.
“Honestly? Fifty-fifty at best. We’re outnumbered. Outgunned. Outspent. They have the police. The politicians. Half the media in their pockets. We have seven people and a grudge.”
“Then why are we doing it?”
She looked through the window at Leo.
He was asleep on the couch again.
“Because that boy is the only good thing Richard Voss ever did. And if the world lets them take him too—then it’s not a world worth living in.”
She stood up.
“Get some rest. Tomorrow we either walk away with everything… or we don’t walk away at all.”
At 1:15 a.m., the motion sensors went off.
A sharp beep from the control panel by the door.
Then another.
And another.
Mia grabbed her rifle.
Jax was already up, a pistol in each hand.
Marcus grabbed a shotgun.
“Four targets,” Zero said, staring at her laptop screen. “Moving fast. Coming from the west. Heavily armed. They’re two hundred yards out and closing.”
Elena ran to the couch and shook Leo awake.
“Up, baby. Now. We have to go.”
Leo was on his feet in an instant.
No grogginess.
No confusion.
Just pure adrenaline.
“Back exit!” Mia yelled. “Through the root cellar! There’s an ATV trail half a mile east! Move!”
Gunshots ripped through the night.
Bullets slammed into the cabin walls.
Plaster and wood exploded everywhere.
We ran for the back.
Mia and Jax covered us, firing through the windows.
I heard men shouting outside.
“Find the boy! Take him alive! Cole wants him breathing!”
We made it to the root cellar.
Mia slammed the door and bolted it.
Then she pulled a hidden lever.
A section of the earthen wall swung open.
Another tunnel.
Short.
Narrow.
“Go!” she yelled.
We crawled through.
Came out fifty yards from the cabin in a thick patch of pine trees.
We watched from the shadows as eight men in black gear stormed the cabin.
They kicked the door in.
Flashlights sweeping.
Then one of them yelled.
“Clear! They’re gone!”
Another voice.
Adrian Cole himself.
Stepping out of the tree line.
He was wearing an expensive suit that looked ridiculous in the middle of the woods.
He walked up to the cabin.
Looked around.
Then he smiled.
A cold, dead smile.
“Let them run,” he said. “I want them to run. It’s more fun when they think they have a chance. Track them. And when you find them—kill everyone but the boy. I want him to watch his friends die before I take him home.”
He lit a cigarette.
“Burn the cabin. Leave nothing but ash.”
Five minutes later, the cabin was engulfed in flames.
We watched it burn.
Silent.
Helpless.
All our supplies.
All our plans.
Gone.
When the fire was at its peak, Adrian turned and walked back to his car.
His men followed.
We waited another hour after they left.
Then Mia stood up.
She slung her rifle over her shoulder.
“Okay,” she said. “Plan B.”
“Plan B?” Elena said. “We don’t have a Plan B! They burned everything! They know we’re in the area! They’ll be hunting us through these woods all night!”
Mia looked at Leo.
Leo looked back.
No fear in his eyes.
Only rage.
“Plan B,” Mia said, “is we stop running. We stop hiding. And we take the fight to them. Tonight.”
She pulled her phone out.
Dialed a number she hadn’t called yet.
It rang once.
“Hello?” a deep voice answered.
“Rook,” Mia said. “It’s time. Richard’s boy needs you. Bring everything you’ve got. And meet us at the old warehouse on 11th. You know the one.”
She hung up.
“Who’s Rook?” Jax asked.
Mia smiled for the first time all night.
May you like
A dangerous smile.
“Richard’s older brother. The one everyone thinks is dead. The man who taught Richard everything he knows. And the only human being on this planet Adrian Cole is actually afraid of.”
