Chapter 21 Mythic Grey
MYTHIC GREY
I STOOD NEAR the entrance, looking around as the night started to wind down.
I signaled to Tyiesha, and she made her way over.
“Yo, I need you to close up tonight,” I told her. “I gotta get Aviana home.”
Tyiesha nodded. She was about to say something, but JD came rushing up out of nowhere, breathless, his face serious. “Mythic, we got a problem. Aviana was just abducted.”
Everything inside me froze for a second, but then the anger hit me like a freight train. “What the hell do you mean abducted?” I snapped with my voice low but treacherous.
JD looked rattled but kept talking. “She got past security somehow. By the time we spotted her, they were already putting her in the trunk.”
“How the fuck did she get past security?” I growled as my blood began to boil.
JD shook his head, scrambling for an answer. “I don’t know, man. We didn’t see her slip out until it was too late. We didn’t wanna shoot—didn’t want her caught in any crossfire.”
I clenched my fists, but I knew JD was right. The last thing I wanted was Aviana gettin’ hit because someone was too quick on the trigger. “All right. Good call,” I muttered, even though I was still heated.
“Draven’s on them, though,” JD added quickly. “He’s following the car, keeping his distance so they don’t know. He’ll let us know where they’re headed.”
That eased some of the rage, but not enough. I needed to see her—to know she was safe.
Without another word, I turned and started toward the door. JD was right on my heels.
As JD and I pushed through the club, I could feel eyes on us. Staff and partygoers gave us curious, concerned looks. I didn’t slow down as I pushed my way past everyone. The second we hit the exit, I was already moving, rushing toward my truck like my life depended on it. And in a way, it did.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialed Taye.
The second he picked up, I blurted, “Taye, follow my location. Aviana’s been abducted.”
There was silence on the other end for half a second, then Taye’s voice came through, urgent and serious. “I’m on it.”
I hung up, my heart pounding in my chest like it was trying to break out.
I couldn’t think straight. The fear hit me hard—harder than I wanted to admit.
The idea of losing her was suffocating. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even focus.
All I could see was her face, and the thought of her being taken by some niggas who had no damn business with her…
The thought was like a weight crushing my chest.
I hopped into my truck, not caring about the looks I was getting as I peeled out of the lot.
As I sped down the street, I knew the cars in my rearview were my security team following me just like I’d trained them to.
But it didn’t calm me. Nothing would calm me until I had Aviana back in my arms—safe.
I followed Draven’s location, speeding through the Southside streets until we pulled up to what looked like a trap house, deep in Urban Enforcers’ territory.
I already knew Fury was behind this. He and his crew had been a thorn in my side for too long, and now he’d gone too far. Taking Aviana was a line he was gonna live to regret crossing, but he wasn’t going to live for long.
We didn’t park right in front of the spot. Instead, we pulled up two blocks away in a deserted parking lot.
We climbed out of our rides, and they all stood around me, waiting for orders. But I wasn’t thinking about strategy. I wasn’t even thinking straight. They had my heart, the love of my fucking life. All I wanted was to storm in there and take those motherfuckers out, one by one.
“We go in blazing with all of the artillery we got,” I told them. “We’re gonna burn that place down and take every one of them out.”
“You need to relax, Mythic. I get you want to make these motherfuckers pay—hell, I want to too. But this ain’t the way. You don’t want Aviana to get hurt in the process. You’re not thinking rationally right now.”
“I’m not thinking rationally? Damn right I’m not,” I snapped. “I don’t think rationally when it comes to her. They took her, Taye. And you’re expecting me to be calm?”
Taye stood on business. “Yeah, I am. ’Cause if we go in there wild, with no plan, she’s the one who’s gonna pay for it. You want her getting caught in the crossfire? You think you’ll be able to forgive yourself if she gets hurt because you couldn’t keep your head on straight?”
I clenched my fists as my chest started to heave. He was right, but it didn’t stop the rage burning in me.
Draven stepped up. His voice was more level than mine.
“We can’t rush in blind. Let’s be smart about this.
We got the drone with us. Let’s use it to look through the windows, see where they’re at inside the house, then we can make a move without putting her at risk.
If we locate Aviana before going in, we have a better shot at getting her out alive—and tearing Fury apart after. ”
“All right,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let’s send the drone in and see what we’re dealing with. But the second we spot them, it’s game on.”
AVIANA SCOTT
I was tied to a damn chair in some old, cold basement that looked like it hadn’t seen daylight in years.
The air was damp, and I could feel the chill in my bones.
My hands and feet were bound tight. The duct tape cut into my skin, and my mouth was still covered.
I was breathing heavily through my nose, trying to catch my breath.
I could hear the idiots who took me. They were upstairs arguing.
They didn’t have a clue what they were doing.
As I listened closely, every word made my stomach turn.
One of them was pissed. He kept talking about how Mythic wouldn’t distribute weapons to him, and because of that, his woman got killed.
Now, he wanted revenge—an eye for an eye. He wanted to kill me.
The other wanted to use me as ransom, thinking they could trade me for the artillery they were after.
I could hear the frustration in his voice, though, like he knew it wouldn’t work.
“Even if we get the weapons from Mythic, we’ll still be at war with him,” he said, sounding like he finally realized just how deep they were in.
“This was a bad idea. I told y’all this was stupid!
He’s got too much firepower for us to survive this. ”
“Then we gotta kill him,” the first one shot back, and my heart dropped.
“Y’all chill,” another voice said. “We made sure that nobody saw us snatch her, so we got time to figure this shit out.”
I realized then that I wasn’t making it out of this alive. They were reckless, thinking with emotions instead of sense. One wanted revenge, the other wanted artillery, and neither of them had the brains to see this whole thing was a suicide mission. And I was stuck in the middle.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to steady my breathing. I had come to terms with it. I was going to die down here. My body trembled as I tried to block out the panic creeping in. I started praying, begging God to spare me.
Lord, please…don’t let this be how it ends. Please spare my and Mythic’s lives.
The truth about Mythic—about who he really was—hit me. The conversation I overheard let me finally know what he did in the streets. He was an illegal arms dealer. But as I sat there, helpless, I prayed anyway.
God, I know what he is doing is wrong, but You had to put him in my life for a reason. Forgive me for loving a man like him, but please… don’t take him from me. I trust You wouldn’t have brought him into my life unless he was a good man.
As I prayed, a loud blast shook the house.
Gunshots rang out like explosions above me.
My heart stopped, then started pounding again—pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
I began breathing faster, panting with fear.
It sounded like a war zone, like a straight-up battlefield both outside and inside the house.
Windows shattered repeatedly. The shots kept coming one after the other, some sounding closer, some farther away.
I heard grunts, yells, and the sickening thud of bodies hitting the floor. My body jerked in the chair, buckling and pulling at the restraints, trying to get free, but I couldn’t. The duct tape was too tight, cutting into my wrists. No matter how hard I struggled, I wasn’t moving.
Tears welled up in my eyes as the chaos raged on around me. I kept praying, kept asking for mercy, even though I couldn’t see how I was getting out of this alive. The sounds of the fight upstairs were getting closer, and all I could do was sit there helpless, trapped, and terrified.
The noises upstairs grew louder, almost deafening, like someone had kicked open the basement door. I froze. My breath caught in my throat. Then I heard footsteps, loud and fast, pounding down the old wooden stairs. My heart dropped.
One of the abductors burst into the room, wild-eyed, frantic, and his face drenched in sweat. His shoulder was bleeding. There was a dark stain spreading across his shirt where he’d been shot. He looked like a man on the edge and desperate.
Without a word, he stormed over to me, his breathing ragged. He ripped the duct tape from my mouth so fast I winced, and the sting made my eyes water.
I barely had time to react before I felt the cold steel of a gun pressed against my head. “I want him to hear you. I want Mythic to hear you scream and beg for your life while I kill you.”
I could feel his breath on my face, smell the mix of sweat and blood coming off him, but I wasn’t about to cower. I wasn’t giving him that. My heart was pounding, but my anger was louder. Without thinking, I spat right in his face. My eyes locked on his with all the fury I had in me.
His expression shifted with pure rage. Before I could brace myself, his hand came down across my face, the force of the slap knocking my head to the side. Pain shot through me, and I tasted blood in my mouth.