Chapter 24 Crown of Smoke #3
I shoved through the crowd. My body was failing with ribs screaming and head swimming. Blood ran into my eyes from the cut that had opened wider during the celebration.
None of it mattered. I needed to find Troy.
More gunfire came closer this time. I saw muzzle flashes in the darkness and saw armed men moving through the crowd with purpose.
They were heading toward the VIP section where Troy had been sitting.
I moved faster and threw myself through the crowd. I used my size to clear a path and didn't care who I knocked over or trampled.
An armed man appeared in front of me and raised his weapon. I didn't think. I just reacted.
I grabbed his wrist and twisted. I felt bones snap. He screamed. I drove my elbow into his face. He went down.
Another one came with a knife this time. He came at me fast. I blocked the first slash and took the second one across my forearm. Pain registered distantly.
I caught his wrist and pulled him into a knee that folded him in half. I took the knife and drove it into his thigh.
He went down screaming.
I kept moving. My hands were slick with blood, my blood and their blood, and I couldn't tell anymore.
The VIP section was chaos. I saw Dmitri first and moving like a hurricane through armed men, putting them down with brutal efficiency.
Luka was there with a gun in hand and firing with calm precision. Ash was beside him covering his six.
And Troy was fighting hand to hand with two men at once and moving like violence was a second language, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
Relief crashed through me so hard my knees almost gave out.
Then I saw Rafael.
He stepped out of the smoke, composed and calm, wearing a dark suit like he was attending a business meeting instead of orchestrating a massacre.
Our eyes met across the chaos.
Rage burned through the exhaustion. I moved toward him without thinking or planning, just fury and betrayal driving me forward.
He saw me coming and smiled, actually fucking smiled.
I threw a haymaker that would have taken his head off if it had landed. He slipped it and countered with a precise shot to my already damaged ribs.
The pain was total and made me gasp. It made my vision white out for a second.
He followed with a kick to my knee. I stumbled and caught myself on a broken chair.
“Declan.” His voice was conversational, like we were catching up over coffee. “You look terrible. Congratulations on the title though. Well deserved.”
“Fuck you.” I lunged at him again and got my hands on his jacket.
He drove his palm into my nose. I heard the crack and felt blood pour down my face. My grip loosened.
He stepped back and adjusted his jacket. “This was never about you, you know. You were just useful. A way to get close. To understand the patterns. To identify the vulnerabilities.”
“You used me.”
“I used your trust. There's a difference.” He circled me and read my damaged body, calculating. “But I did like you, Declan. I genuinely did. You're a good man, loyal and steady, exactly the person Luka surrounds himself with because he knows loyalty is his greatest weapon.”
“Stop talking.” I moved toward him slower now. My body was betraying me with every step.
“I'm explaining because you deserve to understand what tonight was really about.” Rafael's expression shifted and went colder.
“This was never just about killing Troy.
It was about proving to Luka that attachment makes him weak.
That caring about people gives them power over him.
That everything he's built can be dismantled by threatening the right person.”
“You're insane.”
“I'm strategic.” He smiled again. “And tonight I prove my point because Luka is about to watch Troy disappear and watch everything he thought was secure fall apart. All because he made the mistake of caring.”
He pulled something from his pocket, a small device that looked like a phone.
Understanding hit me too late.
“Troy!” I screamed. “Get down!”
The explosion tore through the west side of the arena. The sound was deafening. The shockwave knocked me off my feet.
I hit the ground hard. My head cracked against concrete. Everything went distant and muffled.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Rafael giving orders. “Take Troy Donnelly alive. Kill anyone who gets in your way.”
I tried to get up. My body wouldn't respond and just lay there useless while the world burned.
Then I saw him. Troy was fighting his way toward me through the smoke and fire. His face was bloody. His eyes were wild.
“Declan!” He reached me with his hands on my face. “Declan, stay with me.”
“I'm okay.” The words came out slurred. “I'm—”
Armed men converged on us with four of them, too many for Troy to handle alone even if he was fresh.
He saw them and made a decision.
He grabbed me and started dragging me toward cover.
One of them raised a gun and aimed at me.
Troy threw himself between us. The shot went wide and hit the wall behind us.
More of them came and surrounded us. Troy kept fighting and kept putting himself between me and every threat.
Dmitri appeared and took down two of them. But there were too many. They kept coming.
I watched Troy get grabbed and watched him fight back. I watched them finally overwhelm him through sheer numbers.
“No.” I tried to stand. My legs wouldn't work. “No, let him go.”
Rafael appeared above me and looked down with almost gentle concern. “You should have stayed down, Declan. This didn't have to be your fight.”
“Fuck you.” I grabbed his ankle and tried to pull him down.
He kicked free and nodded to his men.
They dragged Troy away. I watched him struggle and watched him scream my name. I watched him disappear into smoke and chaos.
“Troy!” My voice was raw and desperate. “TROY!”
Rafael crouched beside me. “He's alive. For now. Because Luka needs to understand the lesson fully and needs to feel what it's like to lose control.” He stood. “Thank you for your cooperation, Declan. You played your part perfectly.”
Then he was gone too and disappeared into the destruction he'd orchestrated.
I lay there bleeding. The championship belt was still around my waist, useless metal that meant nothing without Troy.
Dmitri reached me with his hands checking for injuries and his mouth moving but I couldn't hear what he was saying.
The world was going dark at the edges from blood loss and concussion and shock. All of it was finally catching up.
The last thing I saw before everything went black was the emergency lights painting the ruined arena in shades of red and orange. The last thing I heard was my own voice screaming Troy's name into the void.
Then nothing.