Nox – Antigua, Guatemala, 2:04 A.M.
The final target was elusive.
A ghost in a city of secrets, hidden behind layers of bribed guards, crumbling colonial walls, and rotting wealth. Nox waited under a rooftop awning, rain slicking down his bare arms as he tracked the patterns of the man's convoy.
One shot. One exit. Then gone.
His focus was complete.
His silence was clinical.
He hadn't thought of Leo in days. Not since he spotted the old American lighter in a street vendor's display and instinctively bought it because the chipped corner looked like the one Leo lost.
It was shoved deep in his pack now. Forgotten, like the ache.
Emotions were distractions.
He had a job.
And there was only one name left to erase.
Leo – Villa Medical Wing, 4:31 A.M.
Leo gritted his teeth as Dominik patched the gash across his shoulder blade.
"Lower next time and you'd be missing a lung, genius," Dominik hissed, hands surprisingly precise despite his dramatics.
Leo barely flinched. He'd been too deep in it—skirmishes, warnings, the crackle of war inching closer like a lit fuse. The joined mafia bosses weren't hiding anymore.
This was the first real ambush.
He should've seen it coming.
"Is it bad?" Leo asked flatly, head resting on folded arms.
Dominik stared. "You're asking me if a six-inch stab near your lung is bad?"
Leo grunted. "Could be worse."
"You didn't even call Nox."
Leo blinked slowly. "He's working."
Dominik's voice dropped. "And if you'd died tonight? Still too proud to send a single message?"
Leo didn't answer. His fingers flexed around the bandage roll like he could squeeze silence into understanding.
He missed the routine. Missed the unspoken rhythm of existing beside someone who already knew his temperature, his breath, the way his jaw clicked when he was hiding a limp.
But now?
He had no room for softness.
Just pain.
And the shadows rising.
Nox – Kill Site, 6:45 A.M.
The final hit was clean.
No one heard him enter. No one left the room after.
As the blood soaked into the antique carpet beneath his boots, Nox lit a cigarette, eyes dark.
The job was done.
There should be relief.
Instead, he inhaled the smoke and tasted copper and quiet.
He didn't check his messages. Didn't expect any.
Didn't wonder why.
But when he zipped the pack shut and found the lighter he bought for Leo pressed flat beside the movie poster, he stared.
Longer than he should've.
He left the room without looking back.
Villa, Noon
Leo stood shirtless in the garden, shoulder bandaged, eyes following the perimeter guards silently.
The war hadn't started.
But it would.
And if Nox didn't return soon...
He'd be standingat the front of it alone.