The night before the big reveal was oppressive with silence. The city stretched out below the rooftop where I stood, its lights blinking like a restless sea. The weight of everything we were about to unleash pressed heavily on my chest.Behind me, Marcus, Leo, and a handful of his trusted team worked in hushed tones. Laptops glowed dimly in the darkness, files were spread across folding tables, and the tension in the air was thick enough to cut.“Are you sure about this?” Marcus asked, stepping beside me with a cigarette dangling from his lips. His voice was low, cautious.I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”He studied me for a moment, exhaling a plume of smoke into the cool night air. “Once this goes live, Elliot will know it’s you. He’ll know who’s pulling the strings.”“I want him to know,” I replied. “Let him come after me. I’m not running anymore.”Marcus chuckled dryly, shaking his head. “You’ve got a death wish, kid. But I’ll give you credit—you’ve got guts.”Behind us, Leo called out, “

The apartment was silent except for the hum of the computer screens and the occasional whisper of wind through the cracked windows. The safe house had become our war room—a place where plans were drafted, strategies refined, and every move Elliot made was countered as best as we could.But the longer we stayed in hiding, the more restless I became.“Elliot won’t stop until we take the fight to him,” I said, pacing the room. My voice was tight, every syllable laced with frustration. “We’re only reacting. That’s what he wants. We need to flip the script.”Leo, sitting on a worn couch with his head in his hands, looked up at me. “And how do you suggest we do that? Walk up to his front door and knock?”“Maybe,” I said, stopping in my tracks.Marcus, who had been typing furiously on his laptop, froze and looked at me over his glasses. “You can’t be serious.”I crossed my arms. “Why not? He thinks he’s untouchable. That’s his weakness. He’s overconfident, so he won’t expect us to go directl

The quiet that followed Rosa’s warning felt like the last breath before a violent storm. For days, I had been waiting for a confrontation, but now that it was imminent, the air around me felt thick with tension. The reality of what was happening had finally sunk in. Elliot’s retaliation wasn’t going to be some simple smear campaign or a media blitz. No, he was coming for us—his claws would sink into the heart of everything we had built.We couldn’t afford to sit back and wait any longer. It was time to take the offensive.I spent the night going over the details again and again. The files were ready to be released in the next wave, but something in me told me that it wasn’t enough. Elliot was a master at manipulation, and his connections ran deep. We needed leverage, something beyond just the files—a way to expose him for everything he was, to make sure there was no turning back. The thought gnawed at me, pushing me to search for anything, even the smallest fragment, that could be use

The chaos that followed was nothing short of hell. I had always prided myself on being a man of control, a man who could manipulate the world around him with just a few words and a sharp mind. But now, with bullets ricocheting off the pavement and the sound of shattering glass filling the air, I was reminded that control could slip away in the blink of an eye.Leo was the first to react, his military training kicking in as he rose from cover and fired back at the approaching SUVs. His movements were precise, each shot hitting its mark with deadly accuracy. Rosa, ever the strategist, kept her head low, her eyes scanning the environment, looking for weak points, escape routes, anything we could use to our advantage.I wasn’t used to this. This wasn’t a boardroom battle. There were no rules, no negotiation. Just raw violence and survival. And yet, I couldn’t afford to back down now. Elliot had forced our hand, and I wouldn’t let him win. Not like this.I peeked around the corner, my hear

The weight of the moment was suffocating. Elliot stood across from me, his face twisted in a mixture of contempt and confidence, while his men slowly closed in, weapons raised. The dim light of the abandoned factory flickered like a dying heartbeat, casting long shadows across the broken walls.I could feel the tension in the air, thick enough to choke on, and for a fleeting moment, I wondered if this was how it would end. All the power, all the money, all the years spent clawing my way to the top—was it all for nothing? Would it all come crashing down in this abandoned warehouse, at the hands of the man who had once been my closest ally?But then, I remembered. I remembered everything. My fight. My losses. My people. The life I had lived, the life I was trying to rebuild. I couldn’t let it end here. Not like this.I tightened my grip on the gun at my side and stared at Elliot, my mind racing. He had always been clever, always a few steps ahead. But I had learned to think like him. I