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Story: The Strategist

Ghost had information about my father that I needed to know. “He borrowed money from The Triad for hospital bills?”

Ghost smiled. “From my father, who also collaborated with The Trogyn. They offered us money we couldn’t refuse.”

Ghost and his father were traitors to The Taipans.

How had I not known about the medical bills? I’d been young, and seeing my mom sick had narrowed my world.

“You didn’t know about your family’s debt?” He smirked, and I wanted to crater his face.

I said nothing.

He continued, “Money issues turned into a drinking issue. He did extra work for us, which got him into prison. Prison cleaned him up and when he got out, he refused to help us. Blaming us for ruining his family. Saying his son hates him.” He laughed. “Do you hate him?”

My fingers itched to kill Ghost right now.

“You knew I was his son when you were my employee?”

His eyes darkened. “Fuck no. If I had, I would have burned more warehouses, killed more employees just for fun.” He stepped closer. “You’ve caused too much trouble for me recently, so I did some research on you.”

“Why did you kill my father?”

“He chose to die rather than work for me. Wanna know what his last word was?”

Ghost thought he was torturing me by telling me about this. What he didn’t know was that this story gave me the much-needed closure to my relationship with my father. Now I understood why he had changed when my mom had gotten sick. The sudden change of character, the abuse, the dark cloud that hung over my family after my mom passed—all of it made sense. My father did illegal jobs to pay for my mom’s medical bills when we thought he’d been cheating on her.

I didn’t reply to Ghost, so he said, “Arrow.”

My father’s last word was my name.

I pretended not to let the information bother me and shrugged. “We never had a good relationship. I’m more interested in your relationship with The Trogyn.” I shifted my feet, noticing a door on the other end of the room. The door cracked slightly. It had to be Grayson.

Luring Ghost’s attention to me, I said, “You’re a traitor to The Taipans. You killed King Viper, your own father, and countless members of The Triad.”

Ghost flared his nostrils, not noticing I’d made my way toward the rolling office chair.

“They didn’t respect me. Never took my suggestions seriously. I should have been the tycoon! My father was useless, wanting to sever ties with The Trogyn, who had provided us with more money, respect, and opportunities than The Triad everdid.”

“The Triad is looking for you.”

He let out a dismissive laugh. “They’ve got their hands full right now. I’ve created a huge financial burden for them. They’re too busy trying to fix it. Plus, where I’m going, they won’t find me.”

“Is that what the governor, the judge, and the prince told you?”

“How do you know about them?”

“Let’s just say I’m involved.”

Involved in a plan to eliminate them.

“You’re with them?”

“Life could bring a lot of surprises.” I smiled. “I’m a new member, making my way up to the elites. Do you know other elites?”

Take the bait.

He considered me for a moment and smiled. “Let’s meet the prince, and he can tell you himself.”

With mighty force, I kicked the office chair into his legs. He fell back a step back, taking him off guard. He shot at me but missed. I charged at him, threw a punch, another kick, and the gun fell to the ground.