Chapter 34
Into the Subterranean Hive
Exactly one hour later, Alex arrives in Jersey City, where Kai is already waiting for him at the designated spot.
Kai wears a sharp black suit over a dark high-neck outfit, his face completely hidden behind a sleek mask while strands of his vibrant, blue-purple hair catch the dim light of the alleyway.
He leans in close, keeping his voice low as he explains that there are only two ways to access the restaurant's underground base: straight through the busy main kitchen upstairs, or through the dark sewer tunnels beneath the streets.
"The explosive power of these bombs is massive," Kai warns, looking toward the building.
"If they go off, they will completely flatten two or three of the neighbouring shops along with the base itself."
He motions for Alex to follow him further into the shadows where they can hide from public view.
Kai hands him a set of clothes used by the enemy syndicate and explains the gang's hierarchy, pointing out that jackets marked with 'AG' belong strictly to high-level members while the ones marked with 'OG' are worn by low-level street soldiers.
Kai pulls out his tablet, his fingers flying across the screen to bypass the local security network, freeze the live CCTV feeds, and loop the footage perfectly.
Once they both change into the enemy uniforms, Kai hands Alex a matching mask to conceal his identity, grabs the heavy gear bags, and signals to drop down into the cold, damp sewer tunnel to begin their approach.
Just as they step into the darkness, Alex’s phone buzzes with a call from Lucius.
"Teajun and I just set up inside our main hacker base," Lucius says, his voice cutting through the static.
"We have eyes on your feed now. Plant the explosives and get out of there."
Alex gives a brief reply before the line goes dead, and Kai moves to bypass the electronic lock on the heavy security gate at the end of the tunnel, causing the door to slide open with a soft hiss.
As they walk through, the entire room of armed gang members stops what they are doing and turns to stare directly at them.
The tension in the air instantly spikes, but Alex keeps his composure and speaks up with absolute authority.
"The boss orders us to move five hundred men to the Brooklyn and Texas bases immediately. How many men do we currently have stationed here?"
The guard at the front frowns, his eyes narrowing as he looks Alex up and down.
"Yeah, we can do that. But wait... who even are you? Everyone in this tier shares the same information network. How do you not know our current numbers?"
Suspicion ripples through the room as hands move closer toward holsters, but Kai steps in smoothly before the guard can press further.
"Come on, brother, why are you overthinking this? I just checked upstairs. There are fifty men working the top floor, and another three hundred are resting at the penthouse just two minutes down the road. We just need the exact count for this specific basement floor."
The guard relaxes slightly, buying the lie completely and admitting there are exactly one hundred and fifty guys down there right now.
Alex does not waste another second, dropping the two heavy tactical bags onto the floor with a loud thud.
"The boss sends these. New guns and bombs. Check the inventory and make sure everything is accounted for."
Without waiting for a response, Alex and Kai turn on their heels and walk briskly back toward the exit, knowing that going any deeper will make escape nearly impossible if the guards open the bags too quickly.
They make it back to the surface completely undetected, where Kai immediately jumps onto his Kawasaki ZX-10R and Alex throws off his heavy gang jacket to mount his own Kawasaki H2R.
The two powerful machines tear into the night, leaving Jersey City behind as the countdown begins.
Miles away from the chaos of Jersey City, the heavy silence hanging over Lucius’s main mansion is shattered by a low, aggressive rumble. Victor cuts the engine of his Yamaha R1, letting the bike coast into the shadows of the driveway before he climbs off.
He takes the stairs two at a time, heading straight for the upstairs study.
Since the laptops and tablets have already been packed up for the war room earlier, his only task left is to clear out the safe.
He crams the heavy folders—every legal document and file lined up for next month’s court battle—into a duffel bag.
He zips it shut, but just as he swings the strap over his shoulder, a cold prickle of unease tightens the skin at the back of his neck.
He does not ignore his gut. Victor steps out onto the balcony, keeping his shadow hidden against the brickwork as he looks down at the courtyard.
In the dim light below, one of their own hired bodyguards is whispering with a strange woman.
Victor watches as a thick brick of cash passes between them.
The betrayal hits him with instant clarity.
Without a single second of hesitation, Victor draws his gun, lines up the sights, and puts a bullet clean through the traitor’s skull.
The bodyguard drops like stone. The woman shrieks, bolting hard toward the iron gates, but Victor adjusts his grip and fires a second time. The round catches her square in the leg. She goes down with a heavy thud, twisting on the grass and clawing at the dirt, completely unable to walk.
Victor strode down to the courtyard, his boots clicking against the pavement. He does not even look at the dead man. He gestures to the remaining guards who have come rushing out at the sound of gunfire. "Throw her in the basement," he commands his voice dead and flat. "Don't let her bleed out yet."
He bends down, snatches the dead guard’s phone, and rips the woman's device straight out of her shaking hands. He tosses both into his bag, mounts the R1, and tears out of the gates.
He rides hard toward Lucius’s private penthouse.
It is a ghost fortress, an unofficial stronghold built off the grid with heavy Z-plus security.
Victor bypasses the biometric locks, dumps the court files into the wall safe, and locks it down.
He does not linger. Five minutes later, he is back on the road, pushing the bike to its absolute limit as he heads straight for Alex’s penthouse to find the others.
The moment Victor walks into Alex’s penthouse, the heavy tension from the road begins to slip away, replaced by the soft murmur of voices. He pauses in the doorway, observing Tessa as she sits with Emily and Olivia, sharing scattered memories from her childhood.
Victor steps forward, cutting through the cosy atmosphere with his usual blunt focus.
"Wait a minute, hold on, Tessa," he interrupts, leaning against the counter.
"Where exactly in Washington? Washington is a massive state. Give me a specific name, a town, or a landmark near where your grandmother used to live."
Tessa blinks, taking a second to process his sudden intensity before she racks her brain. "She lived right near Lake Chelan," she murmurs, the detail finally clicking in her mind.
Victor sharpens his gaze. "Have you told Lucius yet?"
"I just texted him a second ago," Tessa replies, gesturing to her phone. "Emily and Olivia were talking about old times, and it pushed me to really strain my memory until I remembered the lake."
Victor nods silently, accepting the information before turning on his heel.
He walks over to the private bar at the far end of the penthouse, grabs a heavy crystal glass, and pours himself a shot of neat vodka.
He grabs the remote, sinks into the leather couch, and switches the television over to a live news channel.
By the time he finishes his drink and the clock ticks into the evening, a breaking news banner flashes across the screen in bright red. The anchor announces a massive police raid, broadcasting live footage of several AG gang members caught red-handed with a massive shipment of drugs.
Before the news anchor can even finish reporting the raid, Victor’s phone buzzes in his hand. It is Kai.
"Boss, the job is done," Kai says, his voice laced with adrenaline over the speaker. "Did Alex make it back to the penthouse yet?"
Victor opens his mouth to answer, but the words die in his throat as a heavy, aggressive knock rattles the front door. His instincts lock down instantly. It is not Alex. If it is Alex, he will have bypassed the lock using their secure security codes instead of knocking like a stranger.
"Hold on," Victor mutters to Kai, dropping the phone onto the counter.
He does not panic. Instead, the raw, unpredictable edge that makes him dangerous kicks in.
Victor tosses his half-empty vodka glass onto the floor, the crystal shattering against the tile.
He reaches under the counter, grips the heavy frame of a shotgun, and pumps a shell into the chamber with a lethal click.
He looks over at the couch, his eyes burning with absolute command. "Get to the back room. Now," he orders.
Olivia does not ask questions. She grabs Tessa and Emily by the arms, pulling them quickly out of the living room and slamming the bedroom door shut behind them.
Victor strides toward the entrance, a dark, twisted grin pulling at the corner of his lips. He unlocks the deadbolt and rips the door open.
Instantly, the hallway explodes with gunfire. Five blinding flashes light up the dark corridor as bullets tear through the doorframe, wood splinters flying through the air. But Victor has already thrown his weight to the side, letting his back hit the wall as the rounds miss him by inches.
Before the two gunmen can even reset their weapons, Victor swings around the corner.
He does not blink. He levels the shotgun and fires twice in rapid succession.
The blast tears through the narrow hallway, the impact throwing both men backward onto the blood-splattered floor before they can even scream.
Alex still has not shown up. Victor stands by the doorway, looking out into the hallway where his own bodyguards lie dead on the floor. For a second, he just stares at them, genuinely confused about how anyone has managed to get up here past the main security down below.
He does not waste time overthinking it. He kneels down, goes through the dead guys' pockets, and grabs their phones.
Then, he grabs the two corpses by their jackets and hauls them into a side closet.
The girls are already shaken up; they do not need to walk out into the living room and see a pair of mutilated bodies.
About fifteen minutes later, the front door clicks open and Alex bursts into the penthouse. The moment his boots hit the floor, he freezes. He takes one look at the blood smeared across the tiles and the complete silence in the room, and absolute panic washes over his face.
"Olivia!" Alex shouts his voice cracking as he drops his gear.
Victor steps out of the hallway, casually wiping a smear of blood off his knuckles. "Calm down. She’s fine."
Alex looks at the shotgun in Victor's hand, then back at the floor. "What the hell happens? Who does this?"
"A couple of Gambino's guys," Victor says, tossing the dead men's phones onto the kitchen island.
"How?" Alex's voice goes sharp, his eyes wide. "How the hell do they find this place? It’s supposed to be hidden."
"Doesn't matter how," Victor mutters, leaning against the counter. "The point is they know. Pack your stuff and move the girls to your other penthouse right now."
The bedroom door clicks open, and Tessa steps out into the hallway. Her face is completely pale as she looks at the blood, then up at Victor. "How do they find us?" she asks, her voice shaking. "What do they actually want from us?"
Victor lets out a dry, humourless laugh. "What do you think, Tessa? They're Italians. They do not just want Brooklyn. They want all of New York, Washington D.C., and every single territory surrounding them. They want to wipe us out completely and rule everything."
~