Yuki #2
His death hadn’t just silenced one of Marius’s closest allies.
It had severed another artery feeding an organization that had ruined far too many innocent lives.
With Marius’s arrest making national headlines months earlier, the federal government had wasted no time freezing everything tied to his name.
Businesses, properties, offshore accounts, shell corporations, luxury vehicles, and millions of dollars in assets had all been seized by the FBI.
Years of blood money had disappeared almost overnight, forcing everyone who’d once survived beneath his umbrella to scatter like roaches whenever the lights came on.
Still...the slick bastard had always been good at hiding.
Even after blowing up that hotel, somehow Emory and Masina had survived.
I still hadn’t figured out how they’d walked away from that explosion, but surviving was exactly what they did best. They always found a way to crawl out of the grave before the dirt finished settling.
Unfortunately for Marius...his luck had finally run out.
Tonight wasn’t just about revenge. It was about ending a nightmare that had stretched across decades.
That motherfucker had taken a shot at my daughter.
He’d fired bullets into the very celebration meant to welcome our unborn grandchildren into the world, and had Kade’s security detail reacted even one second slower, I might’ve been burying all three of them instead of watching two beautiful babies take their first breath. Enough was enough.
The SUV rolled to a stop beneath the circular drive, and before the driver could open my door, I was already climbing out. The front doors swung open. Chen was waiting. Of course he’d been expecting me. One look at my face told him everything he needed to know.
“Are we moving tonight Madam?” he asked.
“We’re moving tonight.”
He gave one sharp nod before reaching for the radio clipped to his shoulder.
I walked past him, making my way toward the study tucked at the back of the estate.
The biometric safe hidden behind the bookcase recognized my fingerprint instantly.
One by one I removed the weapons I hoped I’d never have to use again.
My Glock. Two extra magazines. A compact backup pistol.
A shoulder holster. The familiar weight settled against my body like an old friend I wished I’d never had to become reacquainted with.
By the time I stepped back into the hallway, the estate had transformed.
Men moved with purpose in every direction, checking magazines, loading rifles, securing body armor, and confirming positions over encrypted radios.
Outside, black SUVs lined the circular drive with engines already running, headlights cutting through the darkness while more soldiers climbed into position. They knew what tonight meant.
Chen met me at the front door. “We’re ready.”
I looked past him toward the convoy waiting outside. “No,” I answered, my eyes narrowing as I stared into the night stretching beyond the gates.
“We’re prepared.” There was a difference.
Tonight wasn’t going to be another rescue mission.
Tonight...we were going hunting. The last SUV pulled into position when another set of headlights swept across the front of the estate.
Every conversation outside died as the unfamiliar vehicle rolled through the gates, its engine coming to a smooth stop in the center of the circular drive.
I didn’t have to see who was climbing out to know who it was. My stomach tightened before I could stop it. “Fuck, he must’ve followed me here,” I muttered beneath my breath.
I’d been hiding here ever since leaving his house, and somehow he’d never managed to find me.
The only thing I’d done differently today was leave.
Refusing to miss my daughter’s baby shower had been a risk I knowingly took, and now I was paying for it.
The moment I stepped onto the property, I put my location back into play.
Majeston had always been many things, but a fool had never been one of them.
If he’d been watching from a distance or had someone watching for him, all he needed was one mistake.
Seeing Ysis had been worth the risk, but standing there watching his headlights roll through my gates, I couldn’t deny that I’d led him straight to me.
Chen looked toward the driveway, his posture shifting the same way it always did whenever he sensed a threat approaching. “You want us to handle him?”
I never answered as I watched Majeston climb from the vehicle, buttoning the front of his suit jacket before making his way toward the front entrance.
There wasn’t an ounce of urgency in his stride.
He wasn’t reaching for a weapon. He wasn’t barking orders.
He simply walked with the confidence of a man who had decided how the night was going to end before he ever arrived.
The front doors were opened before he reached them. Nobody had invited him inside, yet nobody found the courage to stand in his way either. My soldiers instinctively straightened as he crossed the threshold, their eyes following him across the foyer as the room slithered into an uneasy silence.
They didn’t know Majeston the way I did, but they recognized power when it walked into a room.
There was something about him that demanded space without ever asking for it.
He walked through my foyer as though he’d built the damn house himself, his eyes slowly sweeping across every armed man standing at attention.
The room was filled with enough firepower to start a small war, yet somehow every one of my soldiers suddenly looked uncertain.
Chen stepped in his path before he could reach me. “You need to leave.” Majeston didn’t even acknowledge the gun resting at Chen’s side. Instead, he studied him with the kind of expression a man reserved for someone who’d become an inconvenience rather than a threat.
“I suggest you move.”
“I work for her.” Chen didn’t budge.
“I know.” Majeston’s voice remained almost unnervingly calm. “Which is why I’m giving you the opportunity to walk away. If you don’t move in the next three seconds, I’m going to put a bullet between your eyes before the rest of these men remember they brought guns.”
The temperature inside the room dropped as every man looked toward me, waiting for an order, while at the same time calculating whether they could actually stop the man standing in front of them.
Chen had been with me for years. He’d stared death in the face more times than I could count, but even he recognized something different standing across from him now.
“Chen.” He never took his eyes off Majeston.
“Chen,” I repeated, my voice firmer this time.
“Move.” His jaw tightened so hard I thought he’d ignore me. For one dangerous second I genuinely believed I was about to watch two of the most loyal men I’d ever known kill one another in my foyer. Then, with obvious reluctance, he lowered his head.
“Yes, madam.” He stepped aside.
Majeston never acknowledged Chen’s compliance.
He never thanked him, nor did he spare him another glance as though the exchange had already been forgotten the moment it ended.
His attention remained fixed on me as he continued walking until only a few feet separated us.
Then he turned, letting his eyes travel across every armed man occupying the room before drawing in one deliberate breath.
“GET THE FUCK OUT!”
The roar shook the house. His voice ricocheted off marble floors and vaulted ceilings with enough force to make several of my newer soldiers visibly flinch.
It carried the unmistakable authority of a man who had spent his entire life being obeyed, and for the first time since I’d built this organization, I watched my own soldiers hesitate between my authority and someone else’s.
“I said...” Majeston’s voice dropped lower, somehow becoming even more dangerous than the roar that had preceded it. “...get the fuck out.”
Not a single one of them moved. Instead, every pair of eyes in the room instinctively shifted toward me, silently waiting for my command.
They had pledged their loyalty to me long before Majeston walked through those doors, and not one of them was willing to make a move until they knew where I stood.
I held their gaze for several long seconds, fully aware that whatever happened next rested entirely on my shoulders.
Finally, I found Chen’s eyes among the crowd and gave him the smallest nod.
“Do what he said.” Chen turned toward the others.
“You heard her. Everybody outside.”
Within moments the foyer emptied as rifles disappeared through the front doors and boots echoed across the marble until the three of us remained.
Chen was the last to leave, lingering just long enough to make sure I truly wanted him gone before reluctantly stepping outside and closing the door behind him.
Majeston waited until the last engine outside had started before finally looking at me again.
“Your Syndicate days are over, Yuki.” The words settled over the room with a finality that stole the air from my lungs.
I searched for the rage any husband would’ve carried after everything we survived, but it wasn’t there.
There was no hatred burning behind his eyes.
No bitterness. No desire to punish me. That unsettled me more than if he’d walked through my front door with a gun already drawn.
“You don’t get to make that decision for me.”
“No, you made it yourself a long time ago. I’m just the one standing here telling you it’s over.” he answered evenly. I folded my arms across my chest, refusing to let him see the uncertainty beginning to creep under my skin.
“You walked in my house to tell me how to run my life?”
“I walked in your house because apparently I’m the only person left willing to save your life.”
“You don’t have to save me.”
“I know. You have to want to be saved first.”