𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕋𝕣𝕦𝕤𝕥

The rain hasn’t stopped all night. It drums against the windshield, steady and cold, blurring the city into a watercolor of lights. My hands tighten on the steering wheel. The car isn’t mine—it’s my brother’s, or so he said. Just drop it off, he told me. One quick favor. I should have known better. We grew up on streets that never cared who lived or died. He fought to survive; I learned to patch up his wounds and lie for him when the police came knocking. When he got older, he found new ways to fight—smarter, but just as dangerous. I promised myself I’d left all that behind. A quiet job, a quiet life. No more chaos. No more running. But tonight, the past is chasing me. Headlights follow in the mirror, sharp and deliberate. Every turn I take, they take too. The storm swallows the sound of my heartbeat until the crash drowns it all—metal twisting, glass exploding, the world spinning out of control. When everything stops, there’s only smoke and rain and the taste of blood. I stumble out, dazed, surrounded by shadows. Voices shout a name I don’t recognize. Ryan. They think I’m him. Before I can run, new cars arrive—sleek, black, silent. From the first one steps a man, tall and calm, his presence slicing through the chaos. His eyes find mine, steady and unreadable. He doesn’t speak, but with a single look, the others retreat. Minutes later, the sirens come. The street is sealed, the story rewritten. By morning, the news calls it a targeted attack on a powerful businessman. No mention of me. No trace of the truth. The car, it turns out, wasn’t my brother’s. It belonged to Ryan Hale—the man from the rain, the stranger who shielded me. And I can’t stop wondering—why did he protect me? And what has my brother dragged me into this time?