Chapter 95: Old Enemy New Target
The car was quiet for a long time after.
Claire sat with her dress pulled back into place as best as it could manage, the torn strap still loose at her shoulder.
Her breathing had finally evened out. The earlier heat had faded, leaving only the heavy silence of everything that had happened the alley, the fear, and what had followed inside the car.
Liam didn’t push conversation. He simply helped her adjust the fabric, checked the scrape on her palm once more, and made sure she was steady enough to move.
"I’ll follow you home," he said.Claire looked at him for a moment, then nodded. She didn’t argue.
He waited until her car pulled out of the lot before starting his own.
The drive was short and silent. When they reached her place, he watched from the street until her lights came on inside and the front door locked behind her. Only then did he turn away.
The night was still far from over. Across the city, a black van rolled into an underground garage beneath a nondescript warehouse. The engine cut.
Three men stepped out, one of them still pressing a cloth to his split lip. Their clothes were scuffed. One walked with a slight limp.
They didn’t speak as they took the side stairs up to the second floor.
The room at the end of the hall was sparsely lit. A wide desk sat near the far wall. Behind it, a man in a dark shirt leaned back in his chair, watching them enter with an expression that didn’t change.
To his right stood another manyounger, sharp-eyed, arms loosely crossed.
Derek.
He was closer to the boss than most. Trusted enough to stand in the room during reports. Trusted enough to speak without being asked.
The leader of the failed team stopped a few paces from the desk and kept his eyes down.
"We lost the woman." The boss’s fingers tapped once against the arm of the chair. "Explain."
"We had her near the loading dock. Clean grab. Then someone interfered."
"Someone."
"A man. Young. He came out of nowhere and put two of us down before we could properly react. Fought dirty.
Fast. Didn’t look trained in any formal way, but he didn’t need to be." The speaker touched his own lip. "He didn’t hesitate."
Derek’s posture shifted slightly.
The boss glanced at him, then back to the men. "Continue."
"We were ordered to switch targets and take him instead. Before we could finish it, security started moving. Sirens. We had to pull out. The woman got away. So did he."
Silence settled over the room.
Derek stepped forward a half pace. "Describe him."
The man with the split lip frowned. "Dark hair. Average height, maybe a little taller. Calm face even while he was hitting us.
Moved like he was used to deciding things quickly. When I looked back through the van window, he was just standing there watching us leave. No panic."
Derek’s eyes narrowed.
"Say that again."
"He stood there and watched us drive off. Didn’t chase once we were moving. Just... watched."
Derek was quiet for a few seconds. Then he let out a short, humorless breath.
"I know him."
The boss turned his head. "You’re certain?"
"Yes." Derek’s voice was flat. "That’s the same man who put me on the ground months ago. The one from the internet café situation. Liam Sterling."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
The boss leaned forward slowly, elbows resting on the desk. "The same one you said was just some nobody who got lucky."
Derek didn’t look away. Yes.
One of the men from the van shifted uncomfortably. "He cost us a clean job. If we’d known"
"You weren’t supposed to need to know," the boss cut in. His tone remained even, but the edge underneath it was unmistakable. "The woman was the target.
Simple extraction. Instead I am hearing that the same man who previously embarrassed one of my people has now ruined a second operation."
Derek stayed silent.The boss leaned back again. "Find him."
"We don’t have a full identity trail yet," one of the men said. "Only a name and a face."
"Then get both." The boss’s gaze moved to Derek. "You already have history with him. Use it. I want to know where he lives, where he works, who he cares about, and how close he is to the Claire woman. No more surprises."
Derek nodded once. "Understood.""And Derek."He paused.
"Next time you cross him, don’t underestimate him . I won’t tolerate a third embarrassment."
Derek’s jaw tightened, but he gave another short nod. "There won’t be a third."
The boss waved them out.
As the failed team filed from the room, Derek remained behind a moment longer, staring at the empty space where the men had stood. The name Liam Sterling sat differently with him now.
Before, it had been a personal stain. Now it had become a problem large enough to reach the desk in front of him.
He turned and left the room without another word.
Outside, the night air was cool. Derek pulled out his phone, scrolled to a contact he hadn’t used in months, and made the first call.
It rang twice before it picked up. "It’s late," the voice on the other end said, half-asleep, half-annoyed.
"I need eyes on someone. Tonight, if you can manage it. Tomorrow at the latest."
A pause, longer this time, the sleepiness draining out of it. "Who."
"Liam Sterling. Runs a gaming café downtown. Rage Quit, it’s called." Derek kept his voice level, the way he’d learned to when a job mattered more than he wanted to admit out loud.
"I want to know his schedule, his address, who he talks to, who he doesn’t. Everything."
"That’s a lot for tonight."
"Start with the café. Work outward." Derek glanced back once at the warehouse behind him, its windows dark except for the second floor. "And don’t get seen.
"You make him sound like a problem."
"He is not ," he said finally. "But he shouldn’t be underestimated.
He ended the call before the man on the other end could ask anything else, and stood alone in the cool dark of the garage for a while, turning the name over once more in his head like something he still didn’t quite believe.
The search for Liam Sterling had officially begun.