The Luther estate was quiet in the way only dangerous places ever were.
No music.
No laughter.
Just the low hum of the wind and the soft echo of footsteps against marble floors polished by money and blood.
Lucas sat at the head of the long table, jacket off, sleeves rolled to his forearms. His expression was unreadable, carved into something calm and lethal. The room smelled faintly of whiskey and gun oil.
Kayla was the first to arrive, heels clicking sharply as she took her seat to Lucas's right. Matteo followed, broad shoulders tense, jaw already tight like he'd been summoned for something he wouldn't like. Ethan came in next, silent as ever, eyes observant, calculating. Elijah trailed behind him, fingers tapping once against the table before stilling.
Kellan entered last.
He didn't ask why the meeting had been called. He didn't need to.
The absence was loud.
No Neo.
No Aiden.
Lucas waited until everyone was seated before he spoke.
"This stays in this room," he said calmly.
No raised voice. No theatrics.
That alone made Kayla straighten.
Matteo folded his arms. "You don't call a family meeting without blood on the table, so who's blood is going on the table Lucas."
Lucas's mouth twitched not quite a smile. "Not blood. Not yet."
He reached forward and slid a thin folder across the table.
It stopped in the center.
Neo's name was typed neatly on the front.
The room shifted.
Ethan's gaze sharpened. "You're digging into your assistant now?"
"I already did," Lucas replied. "This is the part where I show you what I found."
Kayla leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "You said he was clean."
"I said he looked clean."
Lucas opened the folder.
Photos.Documents.
Old records that hadn't been meant to survive.
"Neo doesn't exist the way he says he does," Lucas continued, voice steady. "Not fully."
Matteo scoffed. "Everyone has holes in their past."
"Yes," Lucas agreed. "But most don't know how to hide them this well."
He slid a photo toward Ethan.
A younger Neo. Thinner. Harder. Eyes colder than the boy they all knew.
Elijah inhaled slowly. "That's not the same kid."
"No," Lucas said. "That's the other half of him."
Kellan shifted in his seat for the first time. "You're saying he's playing us."
Lucas's eyes flicked to him. "I'm saying he knows how to survive. And people don't learn that without reason."
Kayla crossed her legs. "And Aiden?"
Lucas paused.
That pause mattered.
"Aiden is careless," Lucas said finally. "Loyal. Loud. Emotional." His fingers tapped once against the table. "Neo is quiet. Observant. Calculated."
Matteo frowned. "You're talking like he's a threat."
Lucas met his gaze evenly. "I'm talking like he's not a victim."
Silence settled, thick and heavy.
Ethan spoke next, voice low. "Is he dangerous?"
Lucas leaned back in his chair.
"When pushed," he said, "yes."
Kellan exhaled through his nose. "Then why keep him close?"
That earned him a look.
Lucas turned his attention fully to Kellan now. "Because people with two faces always slip eventually. And when they do, I want to be standing close enough to see which one they choose."
Kayla tilted her head. "You're using him."
Lucas didn't deny it.
"I'm testing him," he corrected. "There's a difference."
Elijah's fingers curled slightly. "And Valerie?"
Lucas's jaw tightened just enough.
"She already knows," he said. "That's the problem."
Matteo swore under his breath. "So what's the play?"
Lucas closed the folder and rested his palm over it, claiming it.
"We watch," he said. "We don't touch him. We don't warn him. And we don't let him know we're aware."
His gaze hardened.
"Because the moment Neo realizes he's been seen… we'll find out exactly which side he's been hiding."
Kellan stood slowly. "And if he turns out to be a liability?"
Lucas looked up at him, eyes dark.
"Then I'll deal with him myself."
The meeting ended without another word.
Miles away, Neo sat alone in his apartment, shirt discarded, window open to the night air. His phone lay face-down on the table, silent now.
He pressed his thumb against his palm, grounding himself.
He felt it the shift.
The tightening of the world around him.
Somewhere deep in his chest, something old and sharp stirred awake.
Neo smiled faintly to himself.
They were finally looking.
And this time?He was ready.
Lucas didn't sleep.
He rarely did after meetings like that.
The house was quiet again, but this time it wasn't peaceful it was expectant, like the walls themselves were holding their breath. The study lights were still on long after midnight, casting long shadows across the desk where files lay spread open like a body on an autopsy table. Names, dates, locations. Old passports. A school record that stopped abruptly. Medical forms that had been signed, then rescinded. Lucas sat still, fingers steepled beneath his chin, eyes scanning the same page for the third time.
Neo's name appeared too often in places it shouldn't.
Not criminal records not officially. Nothing so obvious. It was the absence that bothered him. Years missing between documented residences. A guardian listed once, then never again. Transfers that happened too cleanly. Someone had erased trails without wiping the page completely, like they wanted the outline left behind.
Lucas reached for his phone.
"Pull everything from the south corridor districts," he said quietly when the line connected. "Informal reports. Street chatter. Old police archives. I want names that don't exist anymore."
He ended the call before the response finished.
His gaze drifted to a photograph resting near the edge of the desk one that hadn't been in the folder originally. A surveillance still from years ago, grainy and dark, taken outside a café that no longer operated. A boy stood half-turned toward the camera, face obscured by shadow, posture relaxed in a way that didn't belong to someone young.
The timestamp glared back at him.
Neo would have been fifteen.
Lucas's jaw tightened.
Across the city, morning arrived quietly.
Neo was awake before the sun.
He sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, phone balanced loosely in his hands. The screen glowed faintly, unread messages stacking without being opened. Work notifications. Rita. A meeting reminder that buzzed once, then twice.
He didn't respond.
Aiden's message came through a moment later.
"You feel it too?"
Neo didn't hesitate.
"Yeah".
There was a pause. Then....
"Don't show up today."
Neo exhaled slowly, something close to a smile tugging at his lips.
"Already dressed to disappear."
He stood, pulled on a hoodie, movements calm, unhurried. If anyone had been watching closely, they might have noticed how deliberate everything was. No rush. No panic. Just quiet decision.
When Neo stepped outside, he didn't look back.
By midmorning, the office noticed.
Rita frowned at the empty desk. Checked the time. Refreshed her inbox.
Lucas arrived precisely when he always did.
He stopped short when he saw the space.
"Where is he?" Lucas asked.
Rita hesitated. "Neo hasn't checked in, sir. Neither has Aiden."
Lucas didn't react immediately.
He set his briefcase down. Loosened his cufflinks. His eyes flicked once toward the hallway that led to the lower departments Kellan's territory.
"Cancel my morning meetings," he said calmly.
Rita blinked. "Sir?"
Lucas turned, his gaze sharp now. "Now."
As she scrambled to comply, Lucas reached for his phone again.
No response.
He stared at the screen longer than necessary, then locked it and slipped it back into his pocket.
Interesting.
Neo and Aiden didn't go far.
They chose a place that existed between forgotten and ignored a narrow street lined with closed shops, a café at the corner that still served coffee out of habit more than profit. The windows were dusty, the bell above the door broken so it didn't ring when they entered.
They sat at the back.
Aiden leaned forward first, elbows on the table, voice low. "You think he noticed already?"
Neo stirred his drink without drinking it. "He noticed before we decided not to show up."
Aiden scoffed softly. "Then why skip?"
Neo lifted his gaze, eyes unreadable. "Because if he's watching, he expects us to act normal."
Aiden's fingers stilled. "And this isn't normal?"
Neo tilted his head slightly. "No. This is intentional."
Silence settled between them, heavy but not uncomfortable.
Aiden studied him. "You're different today."
Neo smiled faintly. "You noticed late."
Aiden's stomach tightened, though he didn't know why. "You want to tell me what he found?"
Neo leaned back in his chair, gaze drifting toward the window. A car passed slowly outside, then another.
"They know I didn't grow up the way I said I did," he replied. "They just don't know where I learned the rest."
Aiden swallowed. "And Valerie?"
Neo's smile faded. "She's hot on my tail."
Back at the estate, a new file was opened.
This one thinner. Older.
A name circled in red ink.
A man who had died violently five years ago in a dispute that never made the news. No family listed. No next of kin.
But a note scribbled in the margin caught Lucas's eye.
Seen with a boy. Protective. Trained him.
Lucas leaned back slowly.
The room felt colder.
He closed the file and stared at the ceiling, thoughts aligning into something dangerous.
Neo hadn't lied outright.
He'd curated the truth.
And now...now the boy had vanished for a day, right when the walls were closing in.
Lucas smiled, slow and humorless.
"Run," he murmured to the empty room. "Let's see how far."
Somewhere across the city, Neo lifted his cup and finally took a sip.
Bitter. Familiar.
He met Aiden's gaze, something sharp flashing between them.
"They're moving," Aiden said.
Neo nodded once. "Good."
Outside, a black car turned onto the street and slowed.
Neo didn't look.Not yet.
The street felt wrong.
It wasn't loud too quiet, actually. Late afternoon sun stretched long shadows across cracked pavement, the kind of light that made everything look slower than it really was. Neo walked beside Aiden, hands tucked into his hoodie pockets, steps easy, unbothered on the surface.
Aiden clocked it first.
Not the footsteps those were intentional. Measured. Controlled.
It was the distance.
Too consistent.
Aiden didn't turn his head. "You feel that?"
Neo's answer was immediate. "Yeah."
They kept walking.
The man behind them didn't rush. Didn't slow. He stayed just far enough to be ignored by civilians and just close enough to be a problem. No phone. No bag. Hands free. Posture upright, not tense.
Aiden's jaw tightened. "Not a tail from the office."
"No," Neo agreed softly. "Different."
They turned the corner without signaling it, slipping into a narrow alley that smelled of rust and old rain. Trash bins lined the walls. The kind of place cameras didn't bother with.
They walked five more steps.Then stopped.
The man followed.
The moment his shadow crossed the threshold, Neo moved.
It wasn't dramatic. No warning. No hesitation.
Neo pivoted on his heel, body low, weight centered, fist coming up fast and clean aimed not to knock out, but to test. The man barely had time to register the shift before Aiden was already on his other side, cutting off retreat with a sharp elbow strike aimed at the ribs.
The man grunted, more surprised than hurt.
Interesting.
He recovered quickly too quickly for a civilian.
He swung back, wide and angry, but Neo slipped under it with fluid ease, shoulder rolling forward as his knee came up hard into the man's thigh. Not to cripple. To destabilize.
Aiden followed through instantly.
Left hook. Right cross. Clean. Precise.
Boxing.
Not street fighting. Not sloppy desperation.
Training.
The man staggered but didn't fall. He adjusted his stance, eyes narrowing now, reassessing.
"So," he muttered, wiping blood from his lip. "That's how it is."
He lunged.
Neo met him head-on.
They moved like they'd done this together before Aiden drawing attention with aggressive pressure while Neo circled, striking where openings appeared. Neo's fists were sharp, economical. He didn't waste motion. Every hit landed where it counted solar plexus, jawline, nerve points along the arm.
Aiden absorbed a punch to the shoulder and smiled through it.
"Bad angle," he said, then drove his fist into the man's stomach hard enough to knock the air clean out of him.
The man collapsed to one knee.
Neo was on him immediately, grabbing the collar, yanking him forward just enough to whisper, voice low and deadly calm.
"Who sent you?"
The man laughed a wet, broken sound. "Didn't need to be sent."
Neo's eyes darkened.
Behind them, an engine idled.
Across the street, tucked into shadow, a black car sat parked like it had always belonged there.
Inside, Lucas watched without blinking.
Kellan leaned forward slightly, forearms resting on his knees, eyes locked on the alley.
Neither spoke.
The man on the ground twisted suddenly, trying to pull a blade from his sleeve.
Neo saw it.
Aiden reacted faster.
He kicked the man's wrist with surgical precision. The blade clattered uselessly to the ground. Aiden grabbed the man's head and slammed it once just once against the brick wall.
The man went still.Breathing. Unconscious.
Neo stepped back, chest rising steadily, not even winded.
For a moment, the alley was silent except for distant traffic.
Aiden wiped blood from his knuckles and laughed under his breath. "They really thought."
Neo looked down at the man, then scanned the alley left, right, above. His gaze lingered, sharp, knowing.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "They did."
In the car, Kellan exhaled slowly.
"Well," he said at last. "That answers a few questions."
Lucas didn't move.
His expression was unreadable, eyes dark with something that wasn't anger but interest. Calculation. A shift.
"They weren't protecting themselves," Lucas said softly. "They were controlling the fight."
Kellan glanced at him. "You don't teach that in training grounds."
"No," Lucas replied. "You teach that when survival is the lesson."
In the alley, Neo bent and picked up the blade, turning it once in his fingers before dropping it back beside the man.
Aiden met his gaze.
"They saw," Aiden said.
Neo nodded. "Good."
He turned and walked out of the alley like nothing had happened.
The black car pulled away quietly.
Lucas leaned back against the seat, lips curling just slightly not a smile.
"Interesting," he murmured.
Lucas didn't return to the office.
The car veered off long before the city thinned, iron gates opening at his arrival like the estate itself had been holding its breath. By the time the engine cut, messages had already gone out short, unquestionable.
Family meeting. Now.
The house responded the way it always did.
Voices faded. Footsteps redirected. Guards stiffened. The air inside the Luther mansion shifted into something colder, sharper, expectant.
They gathered in the inner room the one without windows. The one used only when blood and loyalty were the subject.
Elena arrived last, heels clicking softly against marble, eyes narrowing when she took in the expressions around the table. Kayla sat rigid, Matteo leaned back with arms crossed, Ethan restless but quiet, Elijah unreadable as ever. Kellan stood off to the side, hands clasped behind his back, posture neutral.
Lucas didn't sit.
He walked to the screen mounted against the far wall, tapped once on the remote.
The video began without sound.
Grainy. Street-level. An alley.
Neo and Aiden entered the frame, unaware or pretending to be. The moment slowed, sharpened. The turn. The first strike.
The room went still.
Kayla leaned forward without realizing it. "That's not—"
Aiden moved. Neo followed. Not chaos. Structure.
Footwork. Guard control. Angles.
Matteo's brows drew together. "That's boxing."
"No," Ethan corrected quietly. "That's controlled aggression."
Elena's lips parted slightly as the blade fell, as Aiden disarmed the man with brutal efficiency, as Neo stepped back not like a boy who'd just fought but like someone who'd finished a job.
The video ended.
Lucas turned.
Silence stretched. Thick. Heavy.
Finally, Kayla spoke. "They looked like glass in training."
"They let us see that," Elijah said.
Matteo exhaled through his nose. "That kind of coordination doesn't come from nowhere."
Elena's gaze lifted slowly to Lucas. "You've been using him," she said, not accusing observing. "And he's been letting you."
Lucas didn't deny it.
"I knew he wasn't clean," Lucas said evenly. "I didn't know he was layered."
Ethan shifted. "Neo's reactions weren't defensive. He didn't panic. He assessed."
"And Aiden?" Kayla asked.
Lucas's eyes darkened slightly. "Aiden followed Neo's lead."
That landed harder than anything else.
Elijah spoke last. "So the question isn't what they are."
Everyone turned to him.
"It's who taught them."
Lucas dismissed the room with a single raised hand. "Clear this."
They moved immediately questions swallowed, tension carried with them as the doors closed one by one until only Lucas and Kellan remained.
The silence between them was different now.
Lucas didn't look at Kellan when he spoke. "That wasn't street training."
"No," Kellan agreed.
"That wasn't military either."
"No."
Lucas finally turned, eyes sharp. "So what was it?"
Kellan took a breath not because he was nervous, but because the answer deserved weight.
"Survival-based combat," he said. "Close-quarters. Personal. The kind you learn when retreat isn't an option."
Lucas's jaw tightened. "Who teaches that to teenagers?"
"Someone who doesn't expect them to live long," Kellan replied calmly. "Or someone preparing them to outlive everyone else."
Lucas's fingers curled slowly at his side.
"They didn't strike to kill," Lucas said. "But they could have."
"Yes."
"They didn't freeze."
"No."
"They knew exactly when to stop."
Kellan met his gaze fully now. "Which means they've been punished for going too far before."
That was the crack.
Lucas turned away sharply, pacing once, twice, then stopping.
"You trained men like that," Lucas said.
"I did."
"And you know what it costs."
Kellan nodded. "It costs childhood."
Lucas stared at the darkened screen where Neo's image had vanished.
"He walks like a boy," Lucas said quietly. "Talks like one. Looks at me like he's still figuring out where he stands."
Kellan's voice softened just slightly. "That's the dangerous part."
Lucas exhaled slowly.
"Pull everything," he ordered. "Not just records. Patterns. Gaps. Anyone who touched his past."
Kellan inclined his head. "Already started."
Lucas looked at him sharply. "When?"
"When he didn't flinch during training," Kellan replied. "Men flinch. Boys flinch. He calculated."
Lucas's mouth curved into something that wasn't a smile.
"Good," he said. "Because whatever Neo is whatever he's hiding he's standing in my house."
He turned back to the screen, eyes cold, intent burning beneath restraint.
"And I don't keep unknown weapons close to my heart."
Not without knowing exactly how they cut.