Chapter 222: ELITE SECURITY

The next day, Zaley’s phone buzzed.

Kade’s name flashed across the screen.

Zaley answered with a curt, “Tell me.”

“You were right,” Kade said without preamble, his tone clipped and low. “The island’s called Veyrith. Fishing is not allowed there due to...There are no villages, no trade routes, nothing on record. But in the middle of the jungle…” He paused, “…there’s a compound. Heavily fortified.”

“What kind of compound?” Zaley asked, already reaching for his lighter.

“It's not a warehouse, not a dock. They are training grounds,” Kade said. “We used drones to notice men moving in formation. Hand-to-hand drills, target practice. Some were carrying blades I’ve only ever seen in old black-market trades. None of them looked sane."

Zaley’s silence was heavy. “Assassins?”

“Looks like it. And they’re good. Disciplined. They don't have this..."Zaley listened to him taking a breath, "Spark or an expression or anything resembling emotions. They look like robots."

"You mean like you?"

"Yeah, fuck you. You don’t make killers like that in a week.” Kade’s voice dropped lower. “If we try to walk in with a handful of men, we won’t make it out.”

“How many?” Zaley’s tone was cold, calculated.

“More than twenty, maybe thirty. Fifty. You’ll need more than that to get close without being gutted.”

Zaley’s gaze drifted toward the window where the sky stretched out into darkness. “Then we get more,” he said simply, like he was ordering another drink.

Kade gave a humourless laugh. “I’ll start pulling names. But Zaley… if this place is tied to Delmere, it’s not just your problem anymore.”

“Good,” Zaley murmured. “Then they’ll come to us. How come you didn’t know about this before?”

“It’s outside the rule. We keep to our own lanes, you know, respect boundaries and all. Unlike you.”

“Very noble for a don,” Zaley said dryly. “Who runs that area?”

Kade hesitated. “The Verricks. They are a different breed entirely. They rule the underworld there. I never thought Veyrith was under them, and I didn’t even know the place was livable. We don’t share borders, so there was no reason to cross paths. All I know? They hunt like wolves. They had the best reputation for supplying elite security.”

Zaley tapped a finger against his desk.

Maybe… just maybe, he’d found the fourth family.

But it was too easy.

He thought back to the video of Layla—the one burned into his memory—and shook his head.

Nothing is ever easy.

“Dig deeper,” he ordered. “I want a headcount, and I want to know who sent one of them after Kirill and Dante.”

Kade sighed. “Do you have to make everyone your enemy? They’re dangerous.”

“You don’t get it, Kade. They touched Layla. They are threatening her. They held her, experimented on her. She barely remembers, but that doesn’t erase what they did. If even a shred of them remains, they’ll come back. And I won’t allow it.”

“Threatening her how?” Kade’s voice sharpened.

“I got a video of her. She wasn’t even as old as Lilly is now. They knew she was mine. That was their message. For me to back off.”

“Do you know who sent it?"

“Not yet. It self-destructed the second I finished watching. Remi’s still on it.”

“So you don’t have it anymore?”

Zaley’s lips curved into a thin smile. “Oh, I have it. Nothing slips from my phone that easily, no matter how careful they think they are.”

“I’ll see what I can find on the Verricks,” Kade said after a beat.

Even after the line went dead, Zaley sat there, thoughts circling.

If these people really were the fourth family…

Then he realised.

Four families.

Four specific needs.

The Castellans are worried about the birth rate in their region.

Then came the human farm. It was closed down eventually.

The Verrics are elite security suppliers. They created assassins, which is still active.

The Duforts are practically dictators in the name of democracy.

They supplied the children, which hasn't happened in a while.

The Marcellous are out.

No one knows what they needed from this project.

If he needed more information, the only thing he could do was lure Arthur.

He just had to unleash his voodoo on him.

Another message was sent to Arthur with an attachment.

A photo of Noah, still breathing and so alive, on a bed.

"He is not dead yet, grandpa."

"Where are you?" Arthur quickly replied. "Meet me."

Zaley let out a sharp scoff. “How the hell did he fall for it already? I thought he’d need more persuasion.”

“Maybe it’s a trap,” Layla murmured, not looking up from her laptop. A moment later, she turned the screen toward him. “Seline sent me these nursery designs for your office. What do you think?”

He glanced at the display, then shrugged. “They all look the same to me.”

Layla sighed, reclaiming the laptop. “Very helpful, Leon.” She returned to typing, muttering under her breath, “I’ll just decide myself.”

It pulled a memory to the surface, the day they’d picked their furniture after moving into their first apartment. She hadn’t really asked for his opinion then either.

“I knew better than you,” she’d told him. And she had. She always did.

Zaley leaned forward slightly. “Layla?”

“What?”

“Do you want me to stop this? If I walk away now… do you think we’ll be safe?”

She finally looked at him. “Didn’t we start this whole thing because we aren’t safe?”

He nodded once. “Yeah.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Is that video of me bothering you? Why don’t you show it to me?”

He shook his head, quick and firm. “I’m not putting you through that. It’s better if you don’t remember any of it except for that insane process of storing data in a brain.”

Closing her laptop, she reached out, cupping his face and pulling him closer. “I know you want to carry all the burdens, all the scars. Because you think you deserve them. Because you think I’ve had enough pain.”

Layla’s thumbs brushed over the stubble along his jaw.

“Zaley,” she said softly, “you can protect me from the world all you want. But don’t protect me from myself.”

He looked away, eyes fixed on the dark stretch of the park path as though the shadows there held better answers than she did. “It’s not the same,” he muttered.

She tilted his face back toward her, fingers firm under his chin. “That little girl in the video is still a part of me. You’re not erasing her by keeping her hidden. You’re just… locking her away somewhere I can’t reach.”

His grip on the phone in his pocket tightened. “It’s not just about you remembering. It’s—”

“I know,” she interrupted gently. “You’re afraid that when I see it, I’ll look at you differently. Like you’ve failed me.”

The words hit too close to home. He flinched.

“But Zaley…” She leaned closer, her forehead brushing his. “You’ve never failed me. Even when you think you did. We didn't even know each other then. Even if we had, you would be way too young to protect me.”

Before he could argue that, she kissed him.

“Let me see her."