Chapter 2 - The Five Kings Mobilize
Across the state,
in five different locations,
the world began to shift.
Grant Walton sat in his glass office,
staring at the phone he had just put down.
He didn't look angry;
he looked like a hurricane held in a bottle.
He pressed a button on his intercom.
“Cancel every meeting for the next forty-eight hours,”
he ordered.
“And call my brothers.”
In a high-tech laboratory in Midtown,
Leo Walton stopped his research.
He was the genius,
the one who saw the world in code and data.
When his phone buzzed with the emergency signal,
he didn't even check the message.
He knew.
He grabbed his laptop and a black duffel bag,
leaving a million-dollar experiment running without a second thought.
At the city’s most prestigious courthouse,
Silas Walton stood up mid-trial.
He was the legal shark,
the man who had never lost a case.
The judge looked at him in confusion.
“Mr. Walton,
we are in the middle of a cross-examination.”
Silas adjusted his tie,
his eyes cold as a winter morning.
“My family has an emergency,”
he said,
not waiting for a response.
“The court will have to wait.”
He walked out of the room,
already dialing his private investigators.
In a training facility on the outskirts of the city,
Jax Walton was mid-spar.
He was the muscle,
the one who had served in the elite special forces.
When the notification hit his smartwatch,
he dropped his opponent with a single blow.
“I'm out,”
he said,
wiping sweat from his brow.
“The little sister called.”
And in a penthouse suite overlooking the harbor,
Caleb Walton stood among the elite.
He was the socialite,
the one who controlled the whispers and the reputations.
He set his glass of champagne down on a tray.
“Excuse me,
everyone,”
he said with a charming smile that didn't reach his eyes.
“I have a debt to collect.”
They met at a private airfield within ten minutes.
Five men,
each a master of their own domain,
standing in the shadow of a black jet.
No one spoke.
They didn't need to.
They had spent their whole lives protecting Heather,
until she had asked them to stop.
She wanted to find love on her own terms.
She wanted to live a simple life.
And they had let her,
though it had nearly killed them to stay away.
Grant looked at his brothers,
his face a mask of iron.
“She’s in Lake Forest,”
he said.
“Russell Vaughn has her in a basement.”
Jax cracked his knuckles,
a sound like dry wood snapping.
“Is she hurt?”
“She didn't say,”
Grant replied.
“But the girl is bleeding.”
Caleb’s smile turned into a predatory grin.
“I've always hated the Vaughns.”
“They’re new money,”
Silas added.
“They don't understand how deep the roots go.”
“They’re about to find out,”
Leo said,
his fingers flying across his keyboard.
“I've already bypassed their security systems.”
“I have their bank accounts,
their private emails,
and their dirty laundry.”
“Good,”
Grant said,
stepping onto the plane.
“I want them destroyed by morning.”
“Not just bankrupt,”
Jax added.
“I want them to feel every second of it.”
The jet’s engines roared to life,
shaking the ground.
They were moving with a singular purpose.
They were the Five Kings,
and they were going to reclaim their princess.
The flight was short,
but for the brothers,
it felt like an eternity.
They looked at old photos of Heather on their phones.
Heather at her graduation.
Heather laughing at a summer barbecue.
Heather before Russell Vaughn had dimmed her light.
They were going to bring that woman back.
And they were going to burn the man who tried to hide her.
The sky over Lake Forest was dark,
but the lightning was already flashing.
May you like
The Vaughn family was sleeping,
unaware that the monsters were at the door.
