"Get in the car, Clara," Elias repeated, his voice dropping an octave, the polite corporate veneer peeling back to reveal the lethal syndicate enforcer beneath.

"Clara, please," Maya sobbed, her hands shaking on the steering wheel. "He said he won't hurt us if you just get in. He said Julian just

The abandoned shipyard at Pier 40 smelled of decaying kelp, rusted iron, and the sharp, metallic tang of fear.

Clara Hayes was tied to a splintering wooden chair in the center of the cavernous warehouse, her wrists bound so tightly behind her back that her fingers had gone completely numb. A singl

The clatter of Sterling's gun hitting the concrete echoed like a gunshot itself.

For a split second, nobody moved. The three red laser dots remained perfectly fixed on Sterling's chest. The man was hyperventilating, his eyes darting frantically between Julian’s approaching figure and the impenetra