Page 138 of The Silent War

“Okay,” I said. That was all. I’d tear the city apart before I let him go under alone.

We’d clean it. We’d cover it. We’d keep the Syndicate calm.

And then I’d figure out how to drag back the part of Luca that hadn’t come home tonight.

Chapter Forty

BASTION

I stood at the edge of the service lot, ten dead bodies spread across three locations like some kind of fucked up breadcrumb trail Luca had left for me to follow.

And the worst part?

The three in the boot.

High-profile heirs. Dynasty blood. Their family rings still on their fingers, as if Luca had wanted me toknowexactly who they were when he drove the car straight into our private access bay like a goddamntrophy delivery.

Four more stacked in the back corridor of the lot itself. Sloppy work.

The last three had been at the emergency flat above Palace Noir.

And those… those were the worst.

Because Luca hadn’t just killed them.

He’ddestroyedthem.

Bones snapped in ways that didn’t make sense. Teeth embedded in the drywall. The third… I closed my eyes. Didn’t matter. They were all dead.

Ten bodies.

Three different families.

All dynasty, all unapproved and all fucking burned into our doorstep.

I exhaled through my nose, slow and tight. Blood soaked the carpet. One of them had tried to crawl, judging by the drag marks.

Luca hadwatchedthe man bled out.

I turned to the cleanup crew as they arrived, six trusted men, all high-clearance, no dynasty ties. Good. That was the point.

“We strip the flat. Every trace. Tiles, camera logs. All of it. Car gets torched. You have twenty minutes. Move.”

They nodded and scattered. But even with that handled, I wasn’t stupid. The families would know.

Bysunrise, every bloodline with a connection to the heirs would be looking for them. Dynasty law didn’t give a fuck about motive, trauma, spirals.

And ten dead heirs?

That wasn’t a spiral.

That waswar.

I pulled out my phone. No notifications. Just the empty black screen. The one I kept checking for no reason except. He should’ve called. Healwayscalled if he wanted blood. We always cleaned ittogether.

But tonight… he’d gone silent.

Driven body after body across Villain, like some fucking reaper out of dynasty hell.