Chapter 487: Dead
Silence filled the safe house lobby as Ashley and her crew stared in one direction, eyes wide and mouths hanging open.
Ashley blinked, her brows drawing together.
Then the corners of her lips curled upward.
"My boo~!"
Without a care for the bodies scattered around the room, she hurried forward and ran straight toward him.
Lucian smiled and rose from his seat. But the moment he stood, Ashley threw herself at him. Her legs wrapped around his hips, her arms locked around his neck, and her face buried against his shoulder.
He nearly stumbled backward but managed to keep his balance. His arms instinctively wrapped around her, one hand settling on her back as his smile widened and a soft chuckle escaped him.
"God..." she breathed, tightening her hold around him. "I missed you so much. Why weren’t you answering your phone? I thought something bad had happened."
His eyes softened as he rested his head against hers.
"Sorry. I was a little busy."
Ashley closed her eyes and stayed that way for a moment, trying to calm herself.
Her heart was still pounding against her chest, but now that she was finally with him, the anxiety that had been clawing beneath her skin slowly faded.
"Uh..." Rum blinked as he lowered his gun. "Master? What... Why are these guys here?"
"Are they really dead?" Gin mumbled.
"They look pretty dead to me," Nelek whispered.
They had all looked away the moment Ashley launched herself at her husband. With nowhere else to direct their attention, they began examining the bodies scattered around the lobby.
These men were clearly members of Dominion—just not part of the Black Dragon faction.
Red’s crew recognized a few of them.
Their voices pulled Lucian out of his thoughts. Ashley also lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him.
"Right," she muttered. She loosened her hold and jumped down, landing beside him before sweeping her gaze across the lobby.
"Surely, these aren’t decorations." She snapped her head toward Lucian. "Care to explain?"
Lucian nodded and motioned toward the couches.
"I’ll explain," he said. "Sit down."
Rum glanced reluctantly at Red, but the latter ignored him completely. The rest of the men walked past Rum, with Vodka patting him on the shoulder.
"Just give it up. Sleep later."
With that, everyone gathered around Lucian and took their seats.
Aside from Rum, who still desperately wanted to sleep, they all understood that this was important.
Lucian drew a deep breath as he studied their faces. He could see how exhausted they were. Most of them had probably barely slept.
Still, it was better to discuss everything now.
"I went to the High Chamber, and they handed Memphis over to me," he began. "Lukas also caught the person who shot Mr. Tomas."
Ashley immediately perked up. "You did? Who? I mean, where is he?"
Lucian didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked at Red.
"It was Tinie."
The moment the name echoed through the lobby, Red and the others frowned.
Of course, they knew Tinie.
He had trained in the same batch as them, and among that group, he had been one of the best. Red had always been his closest match. Neither of them had ever managed to defeat the other. Every fight ended in a draw, but each one had been brutal and worth remembering.
"No," Red whispered, shaking his head. "Tinie wouldn’t do that."
But when he looked at Lucian, he knew this was no joke.
"Damn," he breathed. "Why would he do that when he wanted to be part of Dominion more than any of us?"
Tinie had chosen to work under the High Chamber faction instead of serving the Black Dragon directly. But that didn’t mean he was the type to betray Dominion.
"Who put him up to it?" Ashley asked.
She wasn’t particularly attached to Tinie, but she remembered him as one of the men stationed at the Black Dragon Corporation. He had arrived there around the same time as Nikki.
"Memphis," Lucian said with a shrug. "It seems Tinie answered to him."
Ashley’s frown deepened. "So Memphis was caught, and Tinie too?"
"Mhm."
She glanced at the bodies around them. "And these men answered to Memphis as well?"
Lucian nodded.
"Then if Memphis and Tinie were caught, and these people were dealt with, what exactly is the problem?"
To everyone else, it sounded like the situation had already been resolved. But the look on Lucian’s face told them otherwise.
There was something more—something much worse.
"Memphis was caught," Lucian said, "but the man they handed over was a fake."
Everyone’s expressions darkened, but no one interrupted.
They waited for him to continue.
And so, Lucian explained.
After the High Chamber surrendered Memphis, Lucian confirmed that the man who had come running to them for protection was merely a double.
That meant while Lucian and his forces were occupied at the High Chamber, the real Memphis had already escaped.
The same question immediately surfaced in Ashley’s mind.
"Memphis killed his father to take his seat in the High Chamber," she said slowly. "But he also prepared a proxy ahead of time."
Her eyes narrowed. "That means he expected this to happen when he helped Marshal."
"Or he expected something like this regardless," Khan chimed in, analyzing the situation. "Maybe he knew things would eventually go badly for him, so he prepared a double. If the Black Dragon hadn’t noticed, everyone would assume he was dead."
"And the cost of believing a threat is gone is far greater than knowing it still exists," Red added grimly.
"Yes," Lucian nodded. "But the real question is, what did Memphis want from the High Chamber?"
Everyone fell silent, and Lucian gave them a moment to process it.
There was more to explain, but it would be easier if they understood the beginning first.
After all, while Ashley had been wreaking havoc elsewhere, Lucian’s situation hadn’t been any less violent.
"What about Tinie?" Ashley finally asked. "Did you get any information out of him?"
Lucian didn’t answer immediately.
He remembered flying out the moment he finished his business at the High Chamber. His first destination had been Tinie’s location. Lucian had planned to question him personally because the man had refused to speak to anyone else.
Unfortunately...
"He’s dead," Lucian said quietly, his eyes sharpening as he looked at everyone. "Poisoned."
He paused. "By the time they found him, he was already gone."