BOOM!!
Riley staggered backward as the blow landed across his jaw.
The room tilted.
Stephanie gasped.
Maura Kaide's laughter rang through the warehouse like broken glass.
"You really thought the dead stay buried, Riley?"
The tall man standing before him said nothing after that. Broad shoulders. Scar across the brow. Cold, disciplined stance. Every inch of him carried the unmistakable aura of a trained killer.
Riley's eyes darkened.
"No…" he muttered. "That's impossible."
The man slowly raised his head.
It was him.
The man Riley had watched fall into fire and steel years ago.
The man who had died so Riley could escape.
Darius Vale.
Three Months Earlier...
Rain hammered against the tinted windows of a black SUV as it rolled through the outskirts of the city.
Inside, Maura Kaide sat with one leg crossed over the other, scrolling through a file on a tablet.
Across from her sat a man hidden in shadow.
Even in darkness, authority clung to him like smoke.
The Viper.
