Sometimes, before hell arrives, the world goes quiet. Night fell like ink, swallowing the city's edges in shadow. The Maybach cruised along the dim-lit bypass outside the city's core, its body gleaming under passing sodium lamps. The road ahead was empty, eerily quiet, the kind of silence that wrapped around you like a prelude to something terrible.
Inside, the air was deceptively calm.
I sat in the backseat, phone in one hand, the other resting across. Arno sat beside me, her head resting lightly against the window, a tired smile on her lips, half-asleep, half-awake her eyes drifting between the window and the reflection of his sharp, unreadable face in the glass.
Shan, in the passenger seat, was thumbing through emails on his tablet, Bluetooth snug against his ear, rattling off updates in that dry, clipped tone of his. Stock meetings. A possible security breach at the west tower. I barely listened. My eyes kept drifting toward her. Even in the dim cabin light, she looked like peace.
"Mr. Moreaux, the meeting with the International Board is set for the twenty-sixth. And the chairman of RosenTech is requesting—"
He froze.
Something blinked across the rearview mirror. Unmarked SUV. Multiple. No headlights... Approaching fast.
"...Shan?" I raised an eyebrow.
Shan didn't answer. His eyes narrowed. Then he spoke-
"Trap."
I straightened, every muscle in my body going stone. "Shan," I said, my voice lower than a growl.
"Clocked it." He was already adjusting. "Tail's been riding us for a minute."
My fingers curled. "They're waiting for the kill zone."
Before Shan could reply, everything blew to hell.
*BANG!*
And then all hell broke loose.
The world detonated into light and metal. A flashbang ignited on the road ahead. The Maybach's auto-dimming windshield darkened too late. The driver shouted, slamming the brakes. In a second the driver's head jerked forward in a spray of blood and bone.
SCREEEEECH!
A black SUV rammed from behind.
The Maybach lurched. Arno screamed. Without a second thought I grabbed her, pulling her into my arm as bullets sprayed the side of the car like hail.
"Get down!" I shouted,
Rat-tat-tat. Glass shattered. Tires exploded. The reinforced side panel took most of the hit—but not all. A round punched through the corner window, grazing My cheek.
"Lucien- what's happening?!" she gasped.
"Ambush," I barked. "Don't move. I've got you."
"Snipers," Shan growled, already pulling a handgun from his holster. "Targeted hit. Multiple vehicles. They're herding us."
Another van swerved into view from the right, side door sliding open mid-motion. Three masked men inside. Tactical gear. No insignias. One had a rocket launcher.
"Down!" Shan screamed, diving across the front seat and slamming his palm against the emergency override.
The Maybach's reinforced bottom chassis dropped. A thick metal barrier sealed the undercarriage, activating survival mode.
FWOOOM!
The rocket whooshed past, missing by inches, and exploded into a fireball behind us. The concussion rocked the car sideways.
I shoved Arno to the floor and rolled over her protectively, blood trickling down my face. "You alright?!"
She nodded, trembling. "What the hell is happening?!"
"Welcome to my life," I muttered, reaching under the backseat for the hidden weapons cache. My hand wrapped around cold steel. I pulled out the compact HK MP7...my favorite kind of apology.
Fully loaded. Semi-auto. Custom silencer.
"Stay down," I gently told Arno, voice low and protective.
Air blasted me like a freight train. Wind howled. But I focused only on the van—on the one gunner still firing.
I aimed.
Shan twisted around in his seat. "Driver's dead. I'm taking the wheel. You cover."
I didn't answer. Because I was already up, crouching beside the shattered window, eyes wild and gleaming. I looked almost… calm, wondering how... But It's not time for my inner monologue.
It's the kind of calm that only exists before a massacre.
I kicked the side door open and fired.
The muzzle flashed like lightning. Bullets tore through the night. One gunman in the van screamed as he fell back, blood spraying across the door. The others ducked...but too late. Shan rammed the car left, crushing the van into the divider.
The Maybach scraped and shrieked along the metal wall. Sparks flew like fireflies.
I turned and fired out the rear window. The SUV behind us swerved to avoid the wreckage—but another vehicle was already on their tail.
A matte black motorcycle zipped between lanes, rider in all-black armor. A second one appeared behind him. Both had silenced pistols drawn.
"More incoming," I said coldly.
Arno had managed to sit up, her chest heaving, eyes wide with panic. "They're going to kill us—"
"No," I said assuring her, shoving another magazine into the compact HK MP7. "They're going to try."
The first rider pulled up alongside and fired into the car. The rearview mirror exploded. Shan ducked, jerking the wheel. I leaned out the broken side and shot twice.
One bullet hit the rider's arm. He lost control and slammed into the guardrail. The crash was deafening. The bike exploded into flame.
"Lucien!" Arno shouted.
The second rider leapt from his bike. Onto their car.
THUD.
Metal groaned under the impact.
I turned just in time to see a blade pierce the roof from above—slicing down through leather and steel, missing Arno's head by inches. I raged in anger.
Shan shouted, "Hold on!"
The Maybach swerved under an overpass. The sudden drop in height forced the assassin to crouch—but it wasn't enough.
CRACK.
His body slammed into the edge of the underpass. He tumbled off the car and rolled across the pavement like a ragdoll.
I pushed the roof blade out with my foot and slammed the hatch shut. "That's enough surprises."
The last SUV was still behind the car. And gaining.
"Take the next tunnel!" I barked.
Shan swerved hard, taking the car down an exit ramp. Our car plunged into an underground tunnel system. The lights inside flickered—half of them were out.
The SUV followed, tires screaming against concrete.
Inside the Maybach, I reloaded. Arno was holding my arm, staring at me like I was someone else.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
I didn't answer. "No time for existential crises," I muttered. "They're still coming."
Instead, I opened the sunroof.
Shan glanced back. "Sir, what the hell are you doing?"
I stood, body halfway out of the sunroof, weapon raised.
Behind us, the SUV's high beams flared. The gunman in the passenger seat leaned out.
Not today, I muttered.
I fired.
The shot struck the gunman's neck. He folded like paper.
The driver tried to ram them, but Shan cut across a column, scraping the wall, and the SUV clipped it too hard.
BOOM.
The vehicle flipped. Metal twisted in a scream. It tumbled over itself twice before bursting into flame behind us.
Silence.
Smoke.
Then nothing but the echo of tires on cracked cement, and smell of burning smoke in air.
I dropped back into my seat, panting. Blood ran down my temple. Arno was staring at me—face pale, lips trembling.
Then Shan muttered, "We've got five minutes before the next wave, if that."
I turned to Arno.
She was shaking.
Tears in her eyes. Hands clenched in her lap. Like something inside her had just cracked.
"Arno," I said softly. "It's okay. We're safe now."
"No," she whispered. "We're not. Not really."
Then suddenly, she snapped. Her fists hit my chest with all the fury of someone who had held back too long.
"You said you were a CEO! You lied! You're...you're a walking war zone!"
"I didn't lie," I said, catching her wrists gently. "I just didn't tell you everything."
"So the news is true? The underworld connection? The rumors?
"Yes," I said, voice cold.
Her voice broke. "I'm a doctor, Lucien. I fix people. I don't survive shootouts in armored cars like it's my day job!"
"I know," I murmured. "And I never wanted you in this mess."
"Then why did you protect me first?" she asked. "Why didn't you throw me aside and save yourself like everyone else would've?"
I looked at her...really looked at her.
And I said, "Because in that moment, there wasn't anything in this world more important to me than you."
She blinked, stunned silent.
Her breathing hitched. Then she crumbled—shaking, sobbing. She pressed her face into my chest, like she couldn't hold it together anymore.
I wrapped my arms around her, gently stroking her hair. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "For everything. For dragging you into my fire. I should've never let it reach you."
And as I held her in the smoldering wreckage of my ruined life, I realized something with a clarity sharper than any bullet: This is the woman I want to protect with my life.
And I'd burn the whole damn world before I let her be touched again.
Shan exhaled. "They sent professionals. No insignia or ID. Whoever's behind this… isn't playing games anymore."
I ran a hand through my blood-matted hair, staring at the burning wreckage fading in the mirror.
"I'm done waiting for them to come to me," I said. "This time, I'm going to surprise with." They choose wrong people to mess with, I slurped, raged in eyes.
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