RAIN, GUNS AND BETRAYAL

CHAPTER THREE - THE ENEMY WITHIN

Lucas Pov

The storm did not rest as the rain battered the city without mercy, washing over the street that had seen too much blood and too many secrets. The thunder rolled across the sky like a warning, very low and constant, as if heaven knew something had shifted.

Silence stretched like a loaded gun inside the Monretti penthouse.

I stood by the window,unmoving and my figures outlined by the lightning with the city reflecting in my eyes, cold, distant and untouchable. Something darker and dangerous stirred beneath that stillness.

Betrayal had a scent and it was everywhere. Behind me the door opened quietly. Marcel, he stepped in cautiously, with his unusual bravery replaced with something more fragile.

“Boss……the men are asking more questions, they want to know what happened next,”Marcel said carefully but I didn't turn.

“ Don't worry, they will know when I decide”I replied with a low and controlled voice.

“What about the shipment?”Marcel hesitated.

“It's gone”, the single word fell heavy in the room.

Marcel pressed "And whoever took it?”.

I turned slowly this time and deliberately. “Well they didn't take it, they were given it”. The meaning settled between us like a storm that is about to break.

Marcel’s expression tightened “Do you really think it's someone inside”.

“I don't think so, I know so” I replied and immediately silence followed. That was thick and suffocating because in our world, betrayal is always from within and worse than any external enemy. It simply means trust has been misplaced and weakness has been exposed.

Something fatal……..was weakness.

A voice cut through the tension before anything could be said.

“You are going to tear your people apart without proof”, both men turned.

Natasha stood firmly close to the doorway with her arms crossed and her gaze sharp despite the fatigue weighing on her. It showed in the way she carried herself and spoke without fear that she didn't belong in this world but she was still here which made her part of it.

“It's none of your business”,I said

“As long as I am cut in the middle of this, it does” she shot back.

Marcel shifted uncomfortably and glanced between us. I stepped forward with my presence filling the space between them. “You should not be here”, I said.

“And yet I am here and from what I can see, you are about to start a war with your own men”Natasha replied.

“There is already a war and you just haven't seen it yet”I said softly.

“Then find out the truth before you start pulling a trigger”,Natasha's expression softened slightly but her voice still remained steady. For a moment neither of us moved. Then I turned away.

“Marcel, surveillance footage now”.

The surveillance room hummed with quiet intensity. Screens fluttered to life casting pale light across tensed faces. Rain destroyed some of the camera feeds but the warehouse still remains clean.

“REPLAY” I ordered.

The surveillance footage rewinds back to when the crates were moved, men walking through familiar routine with everything appearing normal.

It was too normal.

“Pause” and the image froze.

It was a figure standing near the edge of the frame, unremarkable at first glance but there was something about the posture, the confidence that stood out.

“Zoom in,”I said. The image became sharp enough, a face turned slightly towards the camera as recognition strikes like a lightening but no one spoke at first.

“Do you know him?”Natasha said, breaking the silence. I didn't respond immediately but the change in my expression explained a lot.

“Yes, I know him,” I said finally.

“Then who is he?”she asked and there was a pause.

“Liam Delucas.”

“That's not possible”Marcel inhaled sharply but it was as the truth sat there on the screen, undeniable.

Family. Blood. The one betrayal no one ever expected until it happened.

“Why” Natasha asked quietly but no one answered because sometimes there is no reason for power, resentment and envy because all of it lived quietly underneath the surface until it didn't.

My phone vibrated and cut through the moment then I checked the message with my expression hardening instantly.

“Boss…what is it?”, Marcel asked

“They have eventually found him,” I said and the room shifted, making everything become sharper and faster.

“Where?”.

“At the old harbor warehouse “.

Marcel nodded while already moving “am going to get the men ready”.

“Do it, without any mistakes” I said.

The harbor was already a ghost of itself. The rain poured over rusty containers and broken walkways, turning the entire area into a graveyard of shadows. The front light cut through the darkness as black tinted glass cars pulled in one after the other. Some armed and ready men stepped out with their movement precise, I stood at the center of it all focused and unshaken as the warehouse door cracked open. Inside, a dim light revealed a single figure standing still in the middle of the space.

“Liam Delucas.”

But I wasn't surprised at all.

“Lucas, I was wondering when you would show up” he said almost nearly casually but no one else moved as the air felt heavy and charged with years of unspoken tension.

“I can't believe that you betrayed me” I said, Liam slightly tilted his head.

“That's one way to put it and it's the only way Lucas”he said as a faint smile touched his lips “you are used to seeing things black and white”.

“Wow, coming from someone who always hides behind excuses”I replied and his smile faded.

“Can you even hear yourself speak at all?You have taken everything, the power, the family and you think I will let you just have it all and accept it”Liam snapped.

“But you had your own place,"I said.

“Do you mean a place in the shadows?”Liam shot back and silence fell again but the rain pounded on the roof and it was louder now like it was trying to uncover the truth unfolding inside.

“You should have had a conversation with me"I said

“Come to you and say what?,that I was tired of being second or that I wanted more,”Liam replied and laughed bitterly.

“That you desperately wanted to destroy everything”

“No, that I wanted to have what was mine”liam said as the words hung in the air and neither of us moved nor backed down because this was never going to end in any other way.

Liam slowly raised his gun and several men shifted with their weapons ready but no one fired at least not yet.

“Do you have any last word to say?”Liam said as the question echoed in the empty space but then a gun shot rang out sharp and final.

Liam staggered back with shock flashing across his face before it finally disappeared totally. His body hit hard on the ground and was unmoving.

A heavy and permanent silence followed as the rain continued to fall steadily and unforgiving but no one spoke because there was nothing to say for betrayal had been finally answered.

Something else lingered in the air and it was something unresolved because ending like this never truly ends anything it only begins som

ething worse.

Outside the thunder cracks across the sky but somewhere in the distance, an unseen and inevitable war is coming.