ABondThroughTheFire

The Mastermind

Miles away in the sprawling penthouse of Kinston Tower, the city’s skyline glittered like a galaxy of artificial stars. Nathaniel Kinston, the enigmatic founder of Kinston Dynamics, stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, a glass of scotch in hand. His reflection stared back at him, cold and calculating.

Behind him, his executive assistant, Eli Green, cleared his throat. “Sir, our sources confirm Savannah Cole is still alive. The detective assigned to her case—Jared Kinard—is reputedly one of the best.”

Nathan turned, his expression unreadable. He moved to his sleek, mahogany desk and tapped the surface, activating a screen display. On the screen were profiles of Jared Kinard, Savannah Cole, and several other key players.

“Jared Kinard,” he murmured, scanning the detective’s record. “A man of principle. Admirable, but predictable. And so we meet again.”

Eli hesitated. “Do you want us to increase pressure? Our partners are growing impatient.”

Nathan's lips curved into a faint smile. “Patience is a virtue, Eli. Let them fret. Desperation makes people careless. For now, we focus on containment.”

He deactivated the screen and sat down, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. “Savannah Cole is relentless. She’ll stop at nothing to expose us. But everyone has a breaking point.”

Eli shifted uneasily. “And if she doesn’t?”

Nathan’s gaze sharpened, his voice dropping to a lethal calm. “Then we’ll ensure she never gets the chance.”

The room fell silent, the weight of his words hanging in the air. Nathan’s mind was already calculating the next move. He didn’t build Kinston Dynamics into a global powerhouse by playing fair. And he wasn’t about to let one journalist and a stubborn detective unravel everything he’d worked for.

The game had begun, and Nathan Kinston always played to win.

Hurtful Beginnings

Nathan Kinston wasn’t always the powerful, composed figure who now commanded Kinston Dynamics. His childhood was a storm of rejection and resilience, a crucible that forged the man he became.

Born to a single mother in a small, impoverished town, Nathan’s arrival was not celebrated. His mother, Marilyn Kinston, had been a young woman with dreams of escaping her stagnant life. Nathan’s birth had been an unplanned detour, one she neither welcomed nor embraced.

Marilyn made it clear from an early age that Nathan was a burden. “You ruined my life,” she’d hiss after long days at the diner, her resentment palpable. Nathan learned quickly to stay out of her way, retreating into books and the world of his own mind. His solace came from tinkering with discarded electronics he scavenged from junkyards, finding fascination in the way things worked and how they could be repurposed.

School became both a refuge and a battlefield. Nathan’s intelligence set him apart, earning him both admiration and scorn. Teachers praised his aptitude for science and mathematics, but his peers saw only an odd, quiet boy who didn’t fit in. Bullying was a constant, but Nathan endured, channeling his frustration into his studies.

One night, when he was fourteen, Marilyn’s simmering anger boiled over. “Why can’t you be normal?” she shouted, throwing one of his makeshift inventions across the room. The contraption shattered, but Nathan didn’t flinch. He looked her in the eyes and said, “Someday, you’ll wish you had supported me.”

That moment marked a turning point. Nathan became laser-focused on escaping his circumstances. By the time he graduated high school, he had earned a full scholarship to a prestigious university, leaving his small town—and his mother—behind without a second glance.

At the university, Nathan thrived. He absorbed knowledge like a sponge and began to cultivate the charisma and confidence that would later define him. It was there he first conceived the ideas that would become Kinston Dynamics. His early projects caught the attention of investors, and by the time he was in his late twenties, Nathan had built a tech empire from the ground up.

But the scars of his upbringing never fully healed. Nathan’s drive for success was as much about proving his worth as it was about innovation. The rejection he experienced as a child became the fuel for his ambition—and the justification for the ruthless decisions he made along the way.

Now, standing at the pinnacle of power, Nathan Kinston viewed the world with the detached pragmatism of someone who had learned early that emotions were a liability. Yet, buried beneath his icy exterior was the echo of a boy who once longed for acceptance. It was an echo he ignored, focusing instead on the empire he had built and the enemies who dared to threaten it.

“Eli,” Nathan said, breaking the silence. “Double our surveillance on Cole and Kinard. If they want to play a game of endurance, they’ll find I’m unmatched.”

Eli nodded. “Understood, sir.”

As the assistant left the room, Nathan turned back to the window, his reflection staring back at him once more. In his mind, the past and the present blurred, but his resolve remained unshaken. Whatever it took, he would protect what he had built—and no one, not Savannah Cole or Jared Kinard, would stand in his way.