Rain poured from the heavens like judgment, soaking the black tactical gear Hayden wore as he crouched behind a crumbling stone wall, eyes fixed on the compound ahead. The estate loomed in the distance, floodlights glowing through the mist, towers lined with guards, and security cameras swiveling like mechanical vultures.
The world was holding its breath. So was he.
Twenty-five men waited at his signal. Trained, loyal, merciless. They knew what was at stake. They knew who she was.
But only Hayden knew what she *meant*.
He pressed the earpiece. "Dom."
Dom's voice crackled softly in response. "Go ahead."
"Diversion team—north side. Create noise. Just enough to draw the guards. Entry team moves in from the east. We breach that wall. Three minutes. No mistakes."
Dom didn't hesitate. "Copy that."
Hayden's heart beat steady, but deep. Like a war drum in his chest.
He closed his eyes for a breath. Not to pray. Not anymore.
But to *remember.*
Ana's laugh. Her smile under sunlit sheets. The way she touched him like she wasn't afraid of the darkness in him. The girl who once feared him now stood ready to burn for him.
He wouldn't let that happen.
He rose and drew his pistol.
"Let's go."
---
**Inside the compound**, Ana sat in the chair they had chained her to again, arms bruised but her eyes still defiant. The guards had backed off now, more wary than aggressive. Something had changed.
Enzo had disappeared into one of the upper wings.
And the thunder outside was growing louder.
She looked toward the barred window. No lightning followed the thunder. No wind. Just that low, rolling roar. Familiar.
Like engines.
*He's coming.*
She could feel it. Like gravity shifting in the bones of the earth.
A guard passed her cell.
"Storm's getting ugly," he muttered.
She smiled.
"You have no idea."
---
**Outside**, the first explosion hit.
BOOM.
The northern wall lit up in fire and smoke as the diversion team ignited a cache of charges. Sirens blared across the estate. Guards scrambled. Floodlights swung violently, illuminating trees instead of threats.
Hayden took his cue.
"Move."
The entry team sprinted with precision. Hayden reached the eastern wall, dropped to one knee, and planted the breach charge with steady hands.
"Fire in the hole."
The charge blew with a muffled pop—precision plastic explosive. A section of the wall fell inward, and Hayden was the first through the smoke.
Bullets sang.
Guards turned, too slow.
Hayden dropped the first one with a shot to the throat. Dom followed, his blade slashing the leg of another before snapping his neck.
Silencers whispered death.
The wolves were in.
---
Hayden moved like shadow through the estate grounds. Every hallway, every blind corner was a memory. A ghost. He'd grown up here. Bled here. Learned how to kill in these halls.
And now he was about to destroy them.
He pressed the comm again. "East wing secure. Any sign of her?"
Dom: "Interference on thermal. Too much static from the storm."
"Then we do this the hard way."
---
**In the main house**, Enzo Moretti stood at the top of the grand staircase, sipping wine as bullets echoed in the distance. He didn't flinch.
He simply nodded to the man beside him—a towering figure in a suit.
"Release the Black Dogs."
The man hesitated. "They'll kill everyone."
"Not him. Let them bleed his men. I want him alive."
"Yes, sir."
Enzo turned toward the security camera feed.
And there he was.
Hayden.
Face grim. Eyes burning.
The prodigal son come to kill his father.
Enzo smiled. "It's about time."
---
**Meanwhile, Ana heard it**—gunfire, closer now. Not the chaotic crack of wild attack. No. These were clean, professional. *Hayden's men.*
She tugged against the chains. Her wrists bled. Still, she didn't stop. She braced her feet and yanked until the chair scraped back.
Something gave.
The chain anchoring her left wrist snapped free from the bolt in the wall.
Adrenaline surged.
She jammed the broken chain between her fingers like a weapon and rose just as a guard burst into the cell, gun raised.
He didn't expect her to move.
She slammed the metal into his throat. He staggered. She caught his gun, aimed, fired.
One shot.
He dropped.
Her hands shook, but she didn't stop. She grabbed the key ring from his belt and unlocked her other wrist, then took his earpiece.
"Come on, Hayden," she whispered. "I'm not leaving without you."
---
**Two floors below**, Hayden fought through the inner courtyard.
Three of his men were down. The Black Dogs had been released.
Mercenaries. Psychos. Men trained by Enzo to be more animal than soldier. They fought dirty. Axes. Knives. No fear of death. Just blood.
Hayden moved through them like fury incarnate. One tried to take his throat. Hayden stabbed him in the gut, twisted, pulled the blade across his spine.
Another lunged from the side.
Hayden fired without looking—two shots in the chest.
Dom flanked left, covering the entrance to the main house.
"We have to move. He's stalling us."
Hayden's jaw tightened. "Because Ana's close."
They pushed inside.
---
**Ana reached the main corridor**. Alarms were blaring, red lights flashing. Smoke drifted from a burning door at the far end of the hall.
Then she saw him.
A silhouette through the haze. Drenched in blood, holding a pistol.
Hayden.
He froze when he saw her.
"Ana."
She ran.
Straight into him, arms flying around his neck. He caught her, crushed her against him like he didn't believe she was real.
"I thought I was too late," he whispered into her hair.
"You're never too late," she breathed.
Then she pulled back. "Your father's here."
Hayden's eyes went dead cold.
"Then it ends tonight."
---
**They moved together** now, sweeping the upper floors. Dom took half the team to secure the exits.
Hayden led Ana into the great hall—where Enzo waited at the far end, sitting on his old throne-like chair as if this were just another Sunday.
The lights flickered.
Ana gripped Hayden's hand, refusing to let go.
Enzo stood.
"You brought her to the final act. How poetic."
Hayden raised his gun.
"You're going to die, old man."
"I already did, the day your mother chose *you* over me."
The shot rang out.
Hayden didn't hesitate.
But Enzo had already moved—an armored shield rising from the floor, blocking the bullet.
The throne retracted. A hidden door opened behind him.
Coward.
Hayden ran forward. "Stay behind me."
They entered the passage just before the floor exploded behind them—Enzo's last failsafe. If he couldn't win, he'd bury them all.