CHAPTER 6 — THE MAN WHO CREATED HAZEL BROOKS
The man standing behind Hazel in the photograph had no name.
At least…
not one people were allowed to say.
Damian Russo had spent twenty years learning the names of dangerous men.
Drug dealers.
Assassins.
Traitors.
Politicians who smiled in public and destroyed people in private.
But this man?
Nobody knew him.
And that scared Damian more than any enemy ever had.
Because unknown enemies were the ones who survived.
---
“Who is he?”
Damian’s voice was low.
Hazel didn’t answer.
She just stared at the photograph.
Her fingers slowly tightened around the phone.
Garrett noticed.
“Hazel.”
Nothing.
“Hazel.”
She finally looked up.
For a moment, Damian saw something he had never seen before.
Fear.
Real fear.
Not for herself.
For everyone else.
“His name is Elias Crane.”
Garrett frowned.
“Never heard of him.”
Hazel looked at him.
“That’s the point.”
---
The emergency lights flickered.
The Apex Building was still damaged from Michael’s attack.
Smoke drifted through the upper floors.
Security teams moved through the hallways.
But Hazel wasn’t looking at the building.
She was looking at the photograph.
At the man who changed her life.
The man who turned Hannah Brooks into Hazel.
---
Twenty years earlier.
A young girl sat inside a dark training room.
Bare feet.
Bruised hands.
A cut above her eyebrow.
She was twelve years old.
Elias Crane stood in front of her.
Cold.
Patient.
Unforgiving.
“Again.”
The girl looked exhausted.
“I can’t.”
Elias didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t need to.
“Yes, you can.”
“I’m tired.”
A pause.
Then he placed a knife on the table.
“Being tired is when people die.”
The girl looked at the knife.
Then at him.
“Are you saying I’m weak?”
Elias stared at her.
“No.”
A long pause.
“I’m saying the world will think you are.”
---
Hazel closed her eyes.
The memory disappeared.
Damian watched her.
For years, he had been surrounded by people who hid pain behind anger.
Hazel hid hers behind silence.
That was somehow worse.
“You were trained by him.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Seven years.”
Damian stared.
“You were a child.”
Hazel looked away.
“Yes.”
Something changed in Damian’s expression.
Not anger.
Something closer to regret.
But Hazel noticed.
And she hated it.
“Don’t.”
Damian frowned.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m someone you should have saved.”
The room went quiet.
Because Damian knew exactly why she said it.
He had spent his entire life saving people after the damage was already done.
Never before.
---
Garrett stepped closer.
“What does Elias want?”
Hazel answered immediately.
“Control.”
“That’s vague.”
“It’s what he does.”
She looked toward the broken windows.
“He doesn’t kill people because he hates them.”
A pause.
“He destroys them because he wants to prove he can.”
Damian crossed his arms.
“And Michael?”
Hazel’s expression hardened.
“Michael is his student.”
The room went silent.
Damian slowly understood.
Michael wasn’t the mastermind.
He was only a piece.
A smaller piece.
A disposable one.
---
A sound came from the hallway.
Everyone turned.
A security guard stumbled through the door.
Blood on his shirt.
Damian’s men raised their weapons.
The guard collapsed.
“Help…”
Garrett moved forward.
Then stopped.
Hazel’s voice cut through the room.
“Don’t touch him.”
Everyone looked at her.
The guard was breathing heavily.
“Why?”
Hazel stared.
“Because he’s waiting.”
The guard’s head slowly lifted.
And smiled.
Wrong.
Too calm.
Damian immediately understood.
“Move!”
The explosion happened before anyone could react.
---
The blast threw everyone across the room.
Glass shattered.
Smoke filled the office.
For several seconds…
there was nothing.
No sound.
No movement.
Then Damian opened his eyes.
His ears were ringing.
The room was destroyed.
His desk was overturned.
Garrett was on the floor.
And Hazel…
was gone.
---
“Hazel!”
For the first time in years…
Damian shouted someone’s name without caring who heard.
He pushed through the smoke.
A shadow moved.
A figure stood near the broken window.
Not Hazel.
A man.
Older.
Calm.
Wearing a dark coat.
Elias Crane.
He looked exactly like the photograph.
Damian raised his gun.
“You’re a difficult man to reach.”
Elias smiled.
“And you’re a difficult man to kill.”
Damian’s finger tightened.
“Where is she?”
Elias looked past him.
“She?”
A small smile.
“You still don’t understand.”
He stepped closer.
“Hazel was never your protection.”
Damian stared.
“Then what was she?”
Elias looked toward the darkness.
“The last person standing between you…”
A pause.
“And the truth.”
---
Suddenly, Damian’s phone vibrated.
A message.
From Hazel’s number.
He opened it.
Only one sentence.
No explanation.
No warning.
Just four words.
DON’T TRUST YOUR MEMORY.
Damian looked up.
But Elias was already gone.
And for the first time in twenty years…
May you like
Damian Russo wondered if the enemy he had been hunting…
was actually himself.
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