Marked by Creed

Chapter Eighty-Six: When the Quiet Breaks

-----Prices POV-----

The air changed when they walked in.

Axton first—every inch of him coiled rage and repressed violence. Morgan, a step behind, calm and unreadable, her eyes locked on the man tied to the center of the room like she was already cataloging weak points.

Luca didn’t look up.

Not yet.

But Price saw the way his spine stiffened.

He knew.

They were all here now.

And it was time.

Price stayed off to the side. Watching. Always watching. That was his job. That was what Axton trusted him to do. Surveillance. Observation. Strategy.

But now?

Now it was personal.

He remembered Luca when he wasn’t like this.

Not yet a monster.

Not yet broken.

Back when they were just kids in The Haven, surviving one drill at a time.

He’d arrived at ten. Quiet. Wired too tight. A foster system reject with more aggression than trust.

The first time he fought a trainer back, they broke two of his ribs and left him in the cold room for two days.

Luca found him there.

Didn’t speak.

Just sat beside him and shared half a stolen protein bar.

“Don’t give them your soul,” Luca had said.

And for a long time, Price believed he hadn’t.

They were brothers. Not by blood. By scars.

Luca was sharp. Charismatic. Fast. A strategist who always knew where the exits were.

But something changed after they left.

Luca stopped caring who got hurt.

Stopped following rules.

Stopped seeing people as anything but leverage.

Price had tried to talk him back once. Back when there was still a sliver of that boy in his eyes.

But then Luca went off-grid for six months and came back with eyes that didn’t blink and a list of names he’d buried in sand.

Whatever piece of humanity he’d clung to had been severed.

Still, Price remembered the time Luca pulled him out of an op gone wrong in Belarus. Took a bullet for him. Said, “Don’t make me regret that.”

It used to mean something.

Now?

Now he was tied to a chair.

And Price had no regrets.

Because Luca had taken Helen.

Threatened the girls.

Dragged them into a war they hadn’t asked to be part of.

And for that?

There was no mercy.

Only consequences.

The room held its breath.

Morgan’s eyes flicked once to Price.

He gave a tight nod.

He wouldn’t interfere.

Not unless Axton needed him.

But he’d be here.

Watching.

Remembering.

Making sure whatever happened next was finished.

Because that boy in the cold room was long gone.

And what sat in that chair now?

Was just a shell.