THE UNDERGROUND

** The Underground

The club itself is enormous, with multiple levels hidden beneath a legitimate-looking establishment.

The public floor resembles an extravagant nightclub.

Below it are restricted areas known only to members and employees.

There are private gambling rooms, VIP suites, fighting arenas, secure offices, storage areas, hidden corridors, and rooms where criminal deals are negotiated.

Every level has its own rules.

The deeper someone goes, the more dangerous the people they encounter become.

And at the very bottom is Damien’s private domain.

Almost nobody gets invited there.

Opening

The music was loud enough to vibrate through the walls.

Neon lights flashed across the crowded club as expensive cars continued disappearing into the private underground garage.

To an outsider, it looked like an extravagant nightclub.

But everyone who mattered knew better.

This was the Underground.

A place where people came to buy things they couldn’t legally obtain, settle scores, place impossible bets, and make deals they couldn’t afford to have traced back to them.

At the center of it all sat Damien Voss.

It was just another night at the Underground.

Above ground, the city carried on as if nothing unusual was happening beneath its streets. But several floors below, the Underground was already alive.

Music pulsed through the walls. Neon lights swept across the crowded main floor while bartenders moved between expensive bottles and overflowing glasses. Wealthy clients occupied private booths alongside criminals, businessmen, mercenaries, and people whose names were better left unknown.

Nobody asked questions here.

A man could walk through one door looking for a stolen shipment and leave through another after placing a six-figure bet on a fight.

Behind another set of reinforced doors, the underground fight ring was packed. Money changed hands as two fighters traded brutal blows beneath the lights while spectators shouted from the surrounding balconies.

Down another corridor, private rooms were already occupied.

Deals were being negotiated.

Information was being exchanged.

Favors were being bought.

The Underground had something for everyone—and Damien Voss made sure everyone remembered whose territory they were standing in.

From the balcony overlooking the main floor, Damien sat in his usual private section, dressed in black, watching his empire operate beneath him.

Viktor stood nearby, quietly monitoring the room.

“Everything’s running smoothly,” Viktor said.

Damien barely glanced at him.

“Good.”

That was all he needed to hear.

A server passed with a tray of drinks. Security moved through the crowd without drawing attention. The music changed, the lights shifted, and another round of bets began downstairs.

Nothing was unusual.

Nothing was wrong.

It was simply another night at the Underground.

Until the doors opened.

And someone walked inside who Damien Voss had never seen before.*