Chapter 288 BLOOD UNDER THE STONE
Chapter 288 BLOOD UNDER THE STONE
POV: Zuri
The cemetery was supposed to be empty.
That was the first thing I noticed.
The second was the blood.
Amani's motorcycle stopped hard beside the old cemetery gate.
Ghost and Rex were right behind us.
The rest of the Iron Kings spread out, weapons ready.
No one spoke.
Three black vehicles sat deeper inside the cemetery.
All three doors were open.
No headlights.
No engines.
No people.
Ghost looked at Amani.
“They knew we'd come.”
Amani's jaw tightened.
“Stay alert.”
I climbed off the motorcycle and looked around.
Old graves stretched between the trees.
Broken stones.
Overgrown paths.
Cracked statues.
The place felt dead.
Too dead.
Amani moved beside me.
“Stay close.”
I nodded.
We walked deeper into the cemetery.
Then Rex stopped.
“Blood.”
Everyone turned.
A dark trail stained the ground near an old family mausoleum.
There were signs of a struggle.
Broken branches.
Fresh tire marks.
A shattered phone lay in the dirt.
But there were no bodies.
I looked at Amani.
“Where are they?”
“Good question.”
Ghost crouched beside the tire tracks.
“Someone came in fast.”
He touched the ground.
“And left even faster.”
Rex walked around the mausoleum.
Then he stopped.
“Boss.”
Amani turned.
Rex pointed toward the stone wall.
Something had been carved into it.
A wolf.
Silver.
Old.
Underneath it was a date.
I stepped closer.
My heart stopped.
The year was the same year I disappeared.
I reached out.
My fingers touched the carving.
And suddenly...
I wasn't standing in the cemetery anymore.
I was a child.
Small hands.
Cold air.
Dark trees.
Someone was holding my hand.
I couldn't see her face.
But I knew the voice.
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Afraid.
“Whatever happens, never tell them where you're going.”
I looked up.
“Who?”
The memory disappeared.
I gasped.
Amani caught my arm.
“Zuri?”
I blinked.
The cemetery returned.
His eyes searched mine.
“What happened?”
“I...”
I looked at the carving.
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
But I did know one thing.
I'd been here before.
Evelyn stepped toward the mausoleum.
She studied the stone.
Then the entrance.
Her expression changed.
“This isn't a grave.”
Amani looked at her.
“What is it?”
“A hiding place.”
She pushed against one of the stones.
Nothing happened.
Then she pressed another.
A click sounded.
A section of the wall moved.
Behind it was a narrow passage.
Ghost immediately raised his weapon.
“Everyone stay back.”
He entered first.
Rex followed.
Amani kept me behind him.
The passage ended at a small room hidden beneath the mausoleum.
There was one metal box in the center.
Old.
Dusty.
But the lock was broken.
Someone had already opened it.
Ghost lifted the lid.
Inside were photographs.
Names.
Addresses.
Old documents.
Some were written in codes.
Evelyn began sorting through them.
“This is from the old network.”
“The Silver Wolf?”
She nodded.
“This was one of their storage sites.”
Amani looked at the papers.
“Why would Antonio care about this?”
Evelyn didn't answer.
She kept reading.
Then she froze.
Her finger stopped on one name.
Antonio Moretti.
My father.
My stomach tightened.
But then I saw another name.
My eyes moved lower.
And stopped.
AMANI COLE.
I stared at it.
Amani stared too.
Neither of us spoke.
Ghost looked between us.
“That shouldn't be there.”
“No,” Amani said.
“It shouldn't.”
I looked at him.
“Why is your name in a file connected to my family?”
“I don't know.”
“You're sure?”
His eyes met mine.
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation.
No fear.
Just confusion.
And somehow...
That scared me more.
Ghost pulled another document from the box.
A photograph slipped from between the pages.
It landed face up.
I looked down.
My world stopped.
I knew that face.
I knew that smile.
I knew those eyes.
My mother.
My hands began shaking.
“No.”
Amani moved closer.
“What is it?”
I picked up the photograph.
My fingers trembled.
“My mother.”
Evelyn went still.
I looked at the date.
Then looked again.
The year was impossible.
My mother was supposed to have been dead.
Years before this photograph was taken.
My breathing became shallow.
“She was alive.”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Evelyn.
“You knew.”
She didn't deny it.
That hurt more than a lie.
“You knew.”
Evelyn swallowed.
“I knew she survived the first attempt on her life.”
My chest tightened.
“First attempt?”
She nodded.
“But I don't know what happened after that.”
I stared at the photograph.
All these years...
I had believed my mother was gone.
Antonio had made sure I believed it.
Or maybe he had wanted me to.
A thousand questions crashed through my mind.
Why was she alive?
Where had she gone?
Who had taken her?
And why had nobody told me?
I closed my eyes.
For one second, I was a little girl again.
Running.
Hiding.
Trying to understand why adults kept lying to me.
Then—
Gunfire exploded outside.
“DOWN!”
Amani grabbed me.
Bullets slammed into the stone walls.
Everyone dropped.
The cemetery erupted.
Ghost fired toward the trees.
Rex moved to the entrance.
“Black Vultures!”
I looked toward the cemetery road.
Motorcycles were coming through the gates.
Black patches.
Black helmets.
Rifles.
But something was wrong.
They weren't shooting at us.
They were shooting at the mausoleum.
Bullets tore through the stone.
“They want the box!” Ghost shouted.
Amani looked at me.
“Get the documents.”
I grabbed the metal box.
A bullet struck the wall beside my head.
Stone exploded across my face.
Amani pulled me behind a pillar.
“Stay down!”
“I have the evidence.”
“Then stay alive long enough to use it.”
Another burst of gunfire tore through the cemetery.
Ghost fired back.
Rex dropped behind a grave and returned fire.
The attackers kept pushing toward the mausoleum.
Not us.
The documents.
The photographs.
The past.
I held the box against my chest.
I wasn't leaving it.
Not now.
Not after finding my mother.
\---
The shooting continued for several minutes.
Then Ghost shouted.
“I've got one!”
He dragged a wounded attacker behind the mausoleum.
The man's face was covered in blood.
He refused to speak.
Ghost grabbed his jacket.
“Who sent you?”
Nothing.
“Who sent you?”
Still nothing.
The man smiled.
It wasn't a normal smile.
It was the smile of someone who knew he had already won.
I looked at his neck.
Something hung beneath his shirt.
A small silver coin.
My eyes widened.
“The token.”
Ghost looked at me.
“What?”
I pointed.
“That symbol.”
He pulled the coin free.
The same wolf.
The same design we'd found on the dead courier.
But there was something else.
I looked at the man's jacket.
The Black Vulture patch had been sewn over another symbol.
A different patch.
A different identity.
“He isn't a Vulture.”
Ghost ripped the patch away.
Underneath it was the same silver wolf symbol.
Amani's expression hardened.
“They're pretending to be the Vultures.”
Ghost nodded.
“Someone wants us to blame them.”
The realization hit me.
This wasn't only about the documents.
Someone wanted the Iron Kings fighting the wrong enemy.
Antonio didn't need to destroy us himself.
He only needed to keep us angry.
Keep us chasing the wrong people.
Keep us divided.
The cemetery finally went quiet.
The attackers who survived escaped into the trees.
The rest were dead.
We searched the area.
Nothing else.
No answers.
Only questions.
I found Amani standing beside the mausoleum.
He was staring at the document with his name.
I walked toward him.
“Why was your name there?”
He looked at me.
“I don't know.”
“You swear?”
He stepped closer.
“I swear.”
I studied his face.
There was no hesitation.
No lie.
Just the same confusion I felt.
I reached for his hand.
His fingers closed around mine.
“I believe you.”
His expression softened.
For Amani, those words meant more than I realized.
He pulled me closer.
“Thank you.”
I leaned against him.
But my mind was still racing.
My mother.
The photograph.
His name.
The hidden room.
Someone had been keeping secrets about both of us.
And I was beginning to think those secrets were connected.
We returned to the mountain shelter after dark.
Ghost spread the recovered documents across the table.
Amani stood beside him.
Rex checked the doors.
Evelyn sat quietly, staring at the photograph of my mother.
I stood opposite them.
Waiting.
Ghost turned another page.
Then stopped.
“There.”
He pulled out one final sheet.
It had been hidden inside the back of the metal box.
My heart started beating faster.
“What does it say?”
Ghost read it.
His expression changed.
He looked at me.
Then at Amani.
Finally, he handed me the page.
Only one sentence was written on it.
THE GIRL WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO RETURN TO THE KINGS.
My fingers went cold.
Below the sentence was a name.
MARCO MORETTI.
My brother.
I couldn't breathe.
Marco knew.
Not recently.
Not after I escaped.
He knew from the beginning.
He had been looking for me all these years.
Amani stepped toward me.
“Zuri...”
I slowly closed the file.
My voice came out barely above a whisper.
“He's been looking for me all these years.”
Then—
The radio crackled.
Everyone froze.
Static filled the room.
Once.
Twice.
Then a man's voice came through.
Calm.
Familiar.
Cold.
“Hello, little sister.”
My blood turned to ice.
I stopped breathing.
Amani reached for his weapon.
Ghost looked at the radio.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
I stared at the speaker.
I knew that voice.
I'd heard it in nightmares.
I'd heard it in memories.
I'd heard it when I was a child.
Marco.
My brother was on the line.
And somehow...
He had found us.