From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 544

Chapter 544: Shadows of the Past

When Aron thought about the Black Hand, he usually did so while trying to forget everything about it. It was a constant struggle to push those memories down into the depths of his mind. After all, it was his old life, a life he had walked away from to start something new. He needed to focus on his current reality, which meant protecting Max and navigating the dangerous waters of the gang world they had entered. But the past had a way of creeping back in, no matter how much he tried to bury it.

However, curiosity did eventually get the better of him during the quiet moments. There had been a specific period in Aron’s life, shortly after he had started working for Max, where things actually seemed to be going well. Max wasn’t in any immediate trouble, attending school on a routine basis and keeping his head down. Due to the deal they had set up between each other, Aron found himself with a significant amount of time on his own. It was during these gaps in his schedule that he decided to look up or try to find any information he could about the Black Hand.

Of course, getting information about a secret group that most people had never even heard of wasn’t as easy as just searching for it on the internet. The Black Hand didn’t have a website or a public record. But he could still gather information in other ways. He started by looking up the specific areas where he knew they had operated, studying the surroundings and local news reports from that time. He was looking for hints—strange disappearances, unexplained murders, or shifts in the local criminal power structure that would point toward their influence.

With his high wage and his current position, Aron had resources. He was able to get in contact with people in the underworld who specialized in information, people who usually didn’t talk unless the price was right. He pushed his contacts, asking the right questions in the right circles. He wanted to know if they were still active, if they were still recruiting, and if they were still a threat to the life he was trying to build.

Only the information he eventually received was completely unexpected. According to the most reliable sources he could find, the Black Hand no longer existed.

It hadn’t just broken up due to lack of funds or been abandoned by its members. It seemed like the entire organization had been destroyed, and the information he received suggested that the destruction had come from within. It was an internal collapse. Most likely, one of the high-ranking members had decided to go against the commander, or maybe a group of lower-level agents had led a bloody coup to take control and ended up burning the whole thing down.

The situation was what it was, and now Aron was left in a strange position. He had no clue who was left alive from his old life, or what they were doing now that their leash had been cut. Getting information on survivors of a secret program was near impossible. Which was why it had taken Aron by complete surprise when he saw someone like Evon using the exact same combat techniques that he himself had been taught.

’The one thing I would never want is for that program to exist again,’ Aron thought, his jaw tightening. ’They say the Gilt Rats are researching into various things? I hope one of them isn’t the same type of projects and work the Black Hand were involved in. If someone is trying to start up that entire program again, I need to stop them. No one should be put through what I was put through.’

Thinking about what Evon was, Aron wondered if the man was considered a failure. And more importantly, if there were plenty of other well-trained fighters like him within the Gilt Rats, this was going to be an incredibly dangerous fight. More so than anything he had faced so far, Aron felt like he needed to be on the top of his game. He couldn’t afford a single mistake.

High in the hills of Notting Hill city, the landscape was vastly different from the crowded streets below. There was an array of massive villas that looked out into the sea, perched on cliffs that offered a perfect view of the horizon. This was a private area, a place for the wealthy that had its own high-end shops and bars, far removed from the grit of the city’s syndicates.

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