Chapter 1 The Wildcat Chase

SCARLET VAYNE (her pov)

Rain lashed against the city like a vengeful god, the storm swallowing every light and sound. To others, it was misery. To me, it was perfection. The chaos was my ally, the shadows my stage. My heels struck the wet pavement with a purpose that echoed louder than the thunder above. Tonight, Scarlet Vayne wasn’t just a name whispered in fear—I was the reckoning, and someone was about to learn why.

I spotted him stumbling through the labyrinth of drenched streets, his movements frantic and uncoordinated. A rat cornered by the inevitable. He thought he could lose me in the storm, but fear had made him stupid. His every step left breadcrumbs: a splash too loud, a glance too slow, a turn too sharp. He didn’t realize he was leading me straight to him.

When I finally caught up, his back hit the wall of a narrow alley, the impact sending water streaming down the bricks behind him. He gasped, his wide eyes flickering between me and the rain-soaked abyss of the alley. I leaned in close, pinning him with a hand at his throat, the other resting just above the blade at my side.

“Did you really think you could run?” I whispered, my lips brushing his ear. My voice was soft, almost soothing, but the venom laced within it made him tremble. He whimpered, a pathetic noise that only fueled the fire in me.

“P-please,” he stammered, his hands clawing at mine.

A slow smile curled my lips. “Oh, I love it when they beg.”

Before I could revel in his misery further, I felt it: a shift in the air, subtle but undeniable. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. My instincts screamed. Someone else was here.

I turned sharply, my grip on the man unrelenting. My gaze locked onto a figure standing at the mouth of the alley. Tall, broad-shouldered, and completely unbothered by the storm, he stood like a shadow come to life. His dark hair was plastered to his face, water cascading down his sharp jawline. But it was his eyes—gunmetal gray, cold, and unflinching—that made my breath catch.

He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t running. He was watching.

“Do you like what you see?” I called out, my voice cutting through the storm like a blade. I tightened my grip on the rat, making him choke out a pitiful gasp for air.

The stranger didn’t flinch. Instead, he stepped forward, his movements calm, deliberate. The rain poured harder, but it didn’t seem to touch him, as if the storm itself respected him.

“You have a flair for theatrics,” he said, his voice deep, smooth, and laced with something that made my blood simmer.

Before I could answer, cold steel pressed against my back. I froze, my mind instantly calculating my next move.

“Well, well, well,” a voice sneered from behind me. “Scarlet Vayne, caught in the act.”

The rat seized his chance, slipping out of my grasp and scurrying away into the shadows like the vermin he was. I barely noticed. My focus remained on the stranger, even as I slowly turned to address the new threat.

The man behind me held a pistol, its barrel digging into my spine. He smirked, thinking he had the upper hand. I smirked back, my own gun already in my hand, aimed squarely at his gut before he could react.

“Bad move,” I said, my tone icy. “Do you know who I am?”

The man’s smirk faltered. Good. But before I could finish him, the stranger spoke again.

“You always carry that?” he asked, his voice still maddeningly calm.

I glanced at him, my smirk returning. “Would you prefer I didn’t?”

He tilted his head, a flicker of amusement in his stormy eyes. “I prefer precision. Not... sloppiness.”

Sloppiness? My grip on the gun tightened. No one called me sloppy. Yet, there was something in his tone, something in the way he stood, that stopped me from pulling the trigger on either man.

“You don’t seem like someone who makes mistakes,” he added, stepping closer, his eyes never leaving mine. “So why let me see this side of you?”

The weight of his words hit harder than I expected. He wasn’t talking about the gun. He wasn’t even talking about the rat. He had seen through me—through Scarlet Vayne, the ruthless queen of the city’s shadows. He had seen something deeper, something raw.

Something real.

And that terrified me more than the cold steel of the gun or the relentless storm around us.

Not because I feared him.

But because, for the first time in years, I wasn’t sure who held the upper hand.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***