RAIN, GUNS AND BETRAYAL

CHAPTER TWO - BLOOD TIES AND BROKEN VOWS

Lucas Pov

Tonight it felt like it might finally bleed as the city never slept. The rain slicked street reflected on the neon glow of half broken signs, puddles rippling as my black limousine glided silently through the alleys. However, my mind was anything but silent. The ambush haunted me, the precision of the attack, timing and the chilling grin of Ethan Williams all pointed to one impossible truth; betrayal wasn't just a word in the city, rather it was a knife that was buried deep into the chest of someone I had once trusted.

Natasha sat at the passengers, shivering with her soaked coat clinging to her form.She avoided my gaze and instead stared at the rain that was streaming past the tinted window but I could still feel her eyes on me watching, judging and daring.

“Why are you quiet?”, she said with her voice breaking the silence like a knife through fog. “And I am beginning to regret being here”.

“Yes you should”i said with my tone flat but heavy “you must also know that this is not a game Natasha. You are in my world now and it's a world where every friend is a potential enemy and every smile hides a gun.

Immediately her eyes flashed with defiance. “Well,you can't scare me that easily and I did not come here to get scared, I only came for the truth”, she said.

Really, truth, I wanted to laugh and also wanted to tell her but the truth will eventually kill her faster than any bullet but instead I drove on with the tires hissing on wet asphalt, each turn bringing us closer to the heart of the Morentto empire.

When we arrived at the penthouse, it was a fortress disguised as a luxury apartment building, only then she realized how isolated she really was with security cameras scanning every corner, armed guards patrolling the hallways with the smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the air. My home was a castle, and like other castles, it holds a secret in its walls.

We further went inside, the fire in the hearth did little in chasing away the cold. I poured two glasses of whiskey, gliding one to her but she reluctantly took it with her hands shaking from more than just the cold.

“Who did this?” she asked, finally breaking with her voice low, “I mean the ambush……shipment……and the person who played a dangerous game against you”.

I didn't answer immediately, I just stared into the amber liquid in my glass with my thoughts twisting and turning around like snakes. I had already suspected a mole for weeks, someone close and someone who knew the Mornetto family every move. To the extent of orchestrating an attack that was this audacious?then it's personal.

“Oh family, the kind you can't walk away from,the kind who can also…… bite when you least expect” I said finally with each word deliberating.

Natasha brows furrowed. “Do you mean….. someone from your family”.

My jaws tightened. “Yes it is and if I eventually find out who is behind such an act, he won't live to regret it. Betrayal in this city is not just punished, it's erased”.

Natasha dropped her glass down and met my gaze at last. There was a question in her eyes that she could not dare speak aloud:how far am I willing to go? And how much blood am I going to spill all in the name of vengeance?. But before I could respond to her, my phone vibrated. Marcel, my right hand man, was reporting from the docks. Informing me that another shipment has been compromised, one that has not left the warehouse yet. My teeth clenched. Ethan wasn't just attacking me,he was trying to dismantle the Morentto empire piece by piece with the help of someone inside.

“Natasha, I need to go. stay here. lock the doors and please don't follow me”I said abruptly standing.

“I am not going anywhere,I’m staying and you aren't sending me away because if this is your world…..it's my story too now”she insisted, rising to her feet.

My eyes darkened and conflicted because normally I would have ignored her entirely or sent her home to safety but there was something in the way she defied me, so unafraid even in the eyes of the storm which made me hesitate.something irresistible and something dangerous.

“You can not stay here, I won't let you die because of me” I said finally with a low voice.

“And you won't still let me leave because you are afraid I will discover the truth”she countered.

Suddenly the air between us broke, tension thickened as the smoke curled from a fireplace. We both knew the truth, we both knew the stakes and neither of us could back down.

The moment I reached the docks, the storm had already intensified, the rain hammered down like a fist from the sky, drenching everything in a relentless rhythm with crates scattered across the pier, cracked open with the contents,illegal arms and contraband scattered across the wood.

Ethan was waiting and leaned casually against a shipping container with a gun in his hand and a smirk tugging at his lips.

“Lucas…you are predictable. Always two steps behind “he called and said with a voice smooth and venomous.

My hands went straight down to his sidearms with my fingers tightening around the grip. “This must end now tonight”I said with a calm voice, almost casual but in my chest, my heart was racing but not from fear but from fury.

Ethan laughed. “Ends? No, Lucas…….this is just the beginning, do you really think I will let you sit on that throne without challenging you? You made a big mistake trusting the wrong people, it is so unfortunate that someone close to you has chosen my side”.

His words hit me like a hammer because I knew and I have always known it but hearing it aloud made the betrayal truly real.

Gunfire blazed before either of us could move further. My world focused on instinct: shoot, move and survive. My men suddenly emerged from the shadows with each shot punctuated by the storm's roar.

Through the havoc, I caught sight of something or should I say someone familiar moving with a lethal precision. My blood blood ran cold because Ethan had an insider and that insider might just be someone I trusted the most.

As the night stormed on, bullets flying with the rain soaking through every clothing, I realized one inescapable truth: love, devotion and family were luxury that always comes with a price in my w

orld.

And tonight the cost might be my heart……or my life.