"They offered us a junior partnership in exchange for being their attack dogs," I say, collapsing into a leather chair.
"And you said?"
"I told them to go fuck themselves."
Cormac laughs. Actually laughs. "Good. I was hoping you'd have more balls than your father."
Dad's face flushes a deep red. "Fuck you, Cormac. I’ve kept this family alive for forty years by knowing when to fight and when to negotiate."
"You kept this family alive by rolling over every time someone showed their teeth," I shoot back. "That stops now."
"Kingston—"
"No. I'm done listening to you justify your cowardice. Livvie almost died because you were too scared to stand up to these people in the first place."
"And what's your plan? Go to war with an organization that has dirt on half the government? You really want to take that risk?" Dad barks out, picking up his highball glass of whiskey and sloshing it around.
"My plan is to make sure they understand the cost of threatening what's ours."
Cormac nods his approval. "What do you need from us?"
"Intelligence. Resources. And a united front. They're counting on us fighting each other instead of them."
"You have it," Cormac says without hesitation.
Dad looks like he wants to argue, but he knows he's outnumbered. "Fine. But when this goes sideways, don't say I didn't warn you."
"It won't go sideways," I tell him. "Because we're not playing their game anymore. We're playing ours."
We talk some more about logistics and coordinated responses in case they try, stupidly, to send us a “message.” As we're leaving later, Bronx pulls me aside.
"There's something else. About those overseas operations I've been tracking."
"What about them?"
"I think I know where their main server is. The real Blood Vault, not the decoy Roman found."
"Where?"
"Eastern Europe. Probably Romania or Bulgaria. Somewhere they can operate without oversight."
"How sure are you?"
"Eighty percent.” He shrugs. “Maybe ninety."
“And your hacker confirmed this?”
Bronx nods. “Been working on it together with him.”
"What do you need?"
"Time. And probably a trip overseas."
I cock a brow at him. "Dangerous trip?"
Bronx shrugs. "Who knows. Mightbe the kind of trip where I hit the dirt. But to get my hands on this intel and fuck them over? Worth it."
I think about the threats the Tribunal made, about the look in that bastard's eyes when he mentioned Bronx's investigation.
