Page 58 of Controlled Drift
Kael moved first, blood streaking his sleeve, expression unreadable.Tane followed, methodical, scanning corners like he expected the walls themselves to attack.Luca came in last, eyes flicking between his tablet and the room, mapping everything in real time.
“Rear cleared,” Kael said.“No runners.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
Bodies lay scattered across the stone floors.Glass crunched under boots.The house looked less like a monument now and more like a crime scene.
Niko turned slowly, taking it all in.
“This place was never meant to be defended,” he said quietly.
Ethan stood beside him, fists clenched, breathing controlled but brittle.“It was meant to intimidate.”
“Same thing,” Niko replied.“Different audience.”
They continued the sweep.
A lounge with floor-to-ceiling windows.Clear.
A media room, screens still glowing.Clear.
A guest bedroom with the sheets torn back like someone had been dragged out of it in a hurry.Clear.
Everywhere they went, the same message echoed: Gregory had expected them.He had planned for blood.But not enough of it.
“First floor secure,” Victor said at last.
Niko stopped at the base of the staircase, gaze lifting to the darkened second level.The air felt different up there—tighter, denser.Like the house itself was holding its breath.
He thought of Marcus.Thought of the way Ethan had gone still when Gregory spoke his brother’s name.
This wasn’t a fortress.
It was a stage.
Niko flexed his fingers around his weapon.“Stack up.”
They moved together, boots silent on the stairs, weapons angled upward.
Whatever waited above them had been prepared carefully.
And Gregory Rhodes had always liked an audience.
The second-floor corridor narrowed as they advanced, the architecture shifting from grand to deliberate.Thick walls.Reinforced doors.Sound-dampening that swallowed the echo of their boots.
Gregory had built this level to hold.
Luca slowed, tablet angled in close.“Office suite ahead.East wing.Multiple heat signatures.Eight ...no movement pattern suggests they’re waiting.”
Niko felt his pulse spike, cold and precise.
“Positions,” he murmured.
They stacked on the door without a word exchanged.Victor at the hinge.Keanu opposite.Kael and Drew covering the corridor behind them.Ethan directly at Niko’s shoulder, close enough that Niko could feel the tension radiating off him.
Unlocked.
Of course it was.
