Page 3 of Born of Vengeance

“Where does he sit?”

“I swear, I don’t know. But—but there’s someone who might. Santiago. He works customs at the port. Greases things. Keeps eyes closed. He’s local. Real snake.”

“Santiago.” Rafael filed the name away.

The man exhaled. A tremor ran through him like he’d been holding in a scream.

“That’s all I know,” he whispered.

Rafael walked back to his bag and pulled the pistol out slowly.

The man’s eyes widened. “Wait—wait, I helped you.”

“You did.”

“Then let me go.”

Rafael looked at him for a long moment. Not angry. Not cruel. Just… empty.

“You helped girls disappear,” he said. “You helped children vanish.”

“I didn’t touch them. I just moved the cars—”

“You moved pain.”

The silence stretched.

Then a single shot echoed inside the warehouse.

The rain didn’t stop.

Rafael picked up the shell casing, pocketed it, and walked out the door.

The body slumped forward, the chair creaking quietly beneath it.

Back in the street, Rafael melted into the shadows. He had a new name now.

And somewhere behind Santiago, there would be another.

And another.

Until he found the one that mattered most.

Chapter 2 – The Cleaner

The rain hadn't let up. It rarely did this time of year.

Rafael stepped out of the warehouse like a man returning from confession. Calm. Unhurried. His boots splashed through shallow puddles as he vanished down the alley, his black jacket blending with the night. No cameras. No witnesses. Just the wind and the hiss of wet tires in the distance.

He doubled back once, then again. Standard routine. Never the same path twice.

Ten blocks away, parked between a stack of rotting pallets and a rusted dumpster, waited a weathered black motorcycle. He wiped the seat dry, mounted it, and rode off into the maze of backstreets—no plates, no lights, just engine and instinct.

By the time the body was found, if it ever was, he would be long gone.

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The safehouse was nothing.

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