Rain blurred the ambulance lights into bleeding red streaks on the dark streets of Queens. Leah paced outside the emergency room entrance, Jason's blood still drying on her hands. Her jaw clenched every time a medic walked past without giving her an update.
The bullet had hit his upper arm, non-lethal, they said. But then why couldn't she breathe?
Her phone buzzed. Maya.
"You with him?" Maya asked.
"Yeah. He's still in surgery," Leah said, her voice tight.
"They're going to try to spin this," Maya warned. "The arrest was clean looks like they are connected to Meyes, someone higher up already flagged the report for review."
Leah's eyes narrowed. "Of course they did. Because Jason being there ruins the narrative."
"Exactly. The press is already calling him 'the fallen heir.' They'll chew him up if you're not careful."
A nurse stepped outside. "Family of Jason Walker?"
Leah froze. Then, quietly, she said, "I'm his partner."
The nurse smiled. "He's stable. You can see him now."
Leah ended the call and followed the nurse in.
Jason looked pale against the hospital sheets, his arm bandaged and elevated. But he was awake.
And smirking.
"You look like hell," he rasped.
"You got shot," she retorted. "You don't get to joke yet."
He chuckled, then winced. "Still worth it."
Leah sat beside him. "You pushed me out of the way."
Jason shrugged with his good shoulder. "I said I'd always stay behind you. Didn't say I wouldn't cover your six."
She didn't smile. Not this time.
"You could've died," she whispered. "One inch over, and you'd be in a morgue instead of this bed."
His smirk faded. "I know."
Silence stretched between them, heavy with things unspoken. Then Jason reached for her hand his grip weak but warm.
"I meant what I said before," he murmured. "I need to see this through. My family started this mess. I won't let it end with yours destroyed."
Leah looked at their joined hands, then back at him. "This isn't just about family anymore. Not for me. It's about truth. And if we're not careful, we'll both be buried before we find it."
He nodded. "Then let's not waste time."
Three days later, Jason was discharged, arm still in a sling but resolve stronger than ever. Leah met him outside the hospital with a thick manila envelope.
"You said you wanted in deeper," she said, handing it over. "Maya pulled financial records from a shell company linked to Reyes. Guess whose name showed up again?"
Jason opened the file.
Andrew Walker.
He exhaled sharply.
Jason scanned the documents offshore accounts, suspicious wire transfers, encrypted emails. "This goes back almost a decade."
"And look at this," Leah added, flipping to the last page. "One of the transactions? It traces to a Cayman Islands holding group with a silent board seat assigned to a 'C.W.' just months before your father's health started to decline."
Jason's face hardened. "They were setting the stage even back then."
"He's not just protecting the empire," Leah said. "He's reshaping it."
That night, Jason sneaked into his brother's study, everything looks neatly positioned with Leah beside him, her eyes scanning the room like it was another crime scene.
"You okay?" she asked.
"No," he said. "But I'm focused."
Jason opened a drawer and pulled out a leather-bound ledger Andrew's old meeting journal. He flipped through names, times, cryptic notes.
Then he stopped. "This meeting… it's scheduled with someone listed only as 'D.' And it happened three days before my mother's accident."
Leah's breath caught. "You think someone triggered it?"
"I think there might be a connection.
They stared at the page together two people on the edge of a precipice. Below them? A legacy built on corruption. Lies. And blood.
Across the city, Andrew Walker stood by a bar, swirling a glass of scotch as he watched the news report.
"…Jason Walker wounded in undercover sting. Walker Enterprises declines comment."
Victor Hartwell, Andrew social friend stepped into the room. "I told you. Your brother is at the center of all latest attention."
"your stock keeps increasing and your company value also"
"Hope you won't lose your position as the heir this way"
Andrew smiled coolly. " Far from impossible, Definitely not on my watch. Let him enjoy the moments."
Later that week, Leah and Jason met Maya at a downtown café. It was quiet safe. But the tension between them crackled.
"We need a new plan," Maya said. "You're both too visible now. Whoever's pulling strings is watching you closely."
Jason leaned in. "Then we make them think we're giving up. That we're fractured."
Leah frowned. "You want to fake a fallout?"
He nodded. "We stage it in public. Loud. Dramatic. Enough to make Andrew think I've lost faith in the investigation."
Maya glanced between them. "It's risky."
Jason met Leah's eyes. "You okay with this?"
She hesitated. Then said, "If it gets us closer to the truth? I'll slap you in front of a crowd if I have to."
Jason grinned. "Maybe save the slap for later."
The next evening, under the dim lights of a high-end lounge bar, Leah stormed out onto the patio, Jason trailing behind her. Voices raised. Guests staring.
"You lied to me!" she shouted, pushing his chest.
Jason caught her wrist but didn't grip it tightly. "Leah, calm down—"
"Don't tell me to calm down! I trusted you!"
Paparazzi across the street snapped photos. Someone started filming.
Jason stepped back, giving her room. "Then maybe I'm not the man you thought I was."
"You're damn right you're not."
She turned and stormed off, leaving Jason standing alone under the spotlight of city noise and whispered rumors.
From a corner booth inside, One of Andrew's men watched it all with narrowed eyes.
He then placed a call to Andrew informing of the situtation
Andrew smiled. " Keep me updated. Don't let them out of your sight" he replied
Back in Leah's apartment, the door closed behind them.
"That was intense," Jason said, loosening his tie.
"I almost punched you for real," Leah replied, rubbing her temple.
Jason laughed softly, then turned serious. "Thanks for trusting me."
Leah looked at him. "Don't make me regret it."
He stepped closer. "I won't."
And for one suspended moment, the air between them pulsed fragile, electric. The tension of grief and loyalty and something tender neither dared name just yet.
Then Leah looked away.
"Tomorrow," she said, voice steady again. "We go after the silent partners. One of them has to be the key."
Jason nodded. "And we end this. Together."
Elsewhere in a rundown apartment in Jersey City, an old man in a gray hoodie stared at a photo clutched in his wrinkled hands. The photograph was faded, torn at the corners three boys in prep school uniforms, arms slung over each other: Jason, Andrew… and a boy long thought dead.
The man coughed, pain wracking his chest, but he didn't look away.
"Time to come home," he muttered.
He picked up a burner phone and dialed.
When the voice answered, he said only one thing:
"Tell Jason... David is alive."