The rain started to pour harder. Ronan stood in the alley, his cheap shirt soaking wet.
"Go, Jax," Ronan ordered. "Stay in the shadows. Don't let them see you."
"But Boss—"
"That's an order. I need to see what they want first."
Jax vanished into the darkness just as a black sedan screeched to a halt at the mouth of the alley. Four men in suits jumped out. They didn't look like family members. They looked like thugs.
In the middle of them was Leo. He had a mean grin on his face.
"Back so soon, Leo?" Ronan asked. He sounded tired.
"I couldn't sleep knowing you were still breathing, dishwasher," Leo spat. "Sasha is upset. She says you looked at her 'weird' when we left. She doesn't like feeling guilty."
"I didn't say a word," Ronan said.
"Your eyes said it," Leo walked forward. He signaled the four men. "Give him a lesson. Don't kill him. Just break enough bones so he can't scrub a plate for a month."
The four thugs moved in. Ronan looked up. He saw a security camera on the wall of the warehouse across the street. It was working.
*I can't fight back,* Ronan thought. *Not yet. The world needs to see me as the victim.*
The first punch hit Ronan in the stomach. He doubled over. A second punch hit his jaw. He fell into the mud.
"Is that all?" Ronan coughed. Blood mixed with the rainwater.
"Punch him again!" Leo shouted.
They kicked him. One, two, three times. Ronan curled into a ball. He felt a rib crack. He tasted copper. He let out a soft groan.
"You're pathetic!" Leo laughed, stepping into the mud. He kicked Ronan's shoulder. "You're just a piece of trash from the gutter. My friend Marcus was right. You Vale bastards are all weak."
Ronan froze. *Marcus.* So his cousin was behind this too.
"Okay, that's enough," Leo said, checking his gold watch. "I have a dinner date with Sasha. Let's leave this dog in the rain."
Leo and his thugs got into the car and drove away, splashing muddy water all over Ronan.
Ronan lay there for a minute. The pain was sharp, but his mind was clear. He slowly sat up. He wiped blood from his lip with the back of his hand.
"Did you get it?" Ronan asked the empty air.
Jax stepped out from behind a dumpster. He was holding a small digital recording device. "Every second of it, Boss. High definition. High quality audio."
"Good," Ronan stood up. His legs shook a little, but his eyes were like fire. "Keep that. We will use it to destroy Leo's father's reputation next week."
Suddenly, the sound of heavy engines filled the alley. It wasn't one car this time. It was a fleet.
Three massive, black armored SUVs turned into the alley. They were shiny and expensive. They had dark tinted windows. They looked like tanks for billionaires.
They stopped in a perfect line. The doors opened at the exact same time.
Twelve men in high-end tactical gear stepped out. They stood in two rows, creating a path.
An old man in a grey suit stepped out of the middle car. He held a black umbrella. He walked through the mud, not caring about his expensive shoes. He stopped three feet from Ronan.
The old man looked at Ronan's bleeding face. He looked at his torn clothes. Then, he did something that would have shocked anyone in Black Harbor.
The old man bowed deeply.
"Master Ronan," the man said. His voice trembled. "It has been twelve years."
Ronan didn't bow back. He stood tall, even with his cracked rib. "What do you want, Alfred?"
"The Great Master... your father... he is dying," Alfred said. "The survival game is over. He wants his children to come home. He wants to choose the heir."
Ronan let out a cold, dry laugh. "He threw me here when I was ten. He told me to die. Now he wants to play 'family'?"
"The family needs you, Master Ronan. The other four children... they are failing. The business is in chaos."
Ronan looked at the armored cars. He looked at the soldiers. He knew this was the moment. The underground king of the slums was about to meet the kings of the corporate world.
"I'll come," Ronan said. "But not as a son."
"Then how?" Alfred asked.
Ronan wiped a fresh drop of blood from his chin. "Tell them I am coming as a servant. I want to see their faces when they think I am still the broken boy they threw away."