The fourth and fifth were both face-down in the small koi pond near the bamboo. Two orange fish darted around them in nervous loops, but didn’t touch. Blood trailed in a lazy spiralfrom their mouths, rippling in the water. One’s back was riddled with punctures.
The final man was still kneeling in front of it all with his head completely gone, taken clean off the shoulders. The jagged stump steamed in the cool night air.
His hands were folded in his lap. Blood pooled between his thighs.
A gold coin had been placed in front of him.
I checked it.
The Fox’s crest.
My father’s fucking signature.
My stomach twisted.
The Fox didn’t just send spies. He sent butchers. Killers who didn’t just want to finish a mission—they wanted to defile the very idea of safety. They wanted me to know that no matter how many soldiers I trained or how many strategies I crafted, I would never be untouchable.
That I could never protect the people I loved.
And the worst part?
He’d used my own hands to do it.
I was the one who’d approved every name on that list. I’d walked Nyomi into this trap thinking she’d be surrounded by my best.
Turns out, I’d wrapped her in wolves.
I was going to burn this whole island before I let that happen again.
Hiro stepped up to the coin. His chest rose with a slow, measured inhale. “I recognize your personal guys. So that means the men in the circle are five of the Tiger’s guards?”
Rage surged through me, I spoke through gritted teeth. “Yes.”
“How many men did you assign to protect her?”
“Ten.”
He met my eyes. “Thenfivepsychotic traitors are still breathing and are trying to get off this island—”
“Or they’re hoping to somehow let our father know where we are at—”
“Regardless they probably plan to kill more people on the island in the process—”
“We’ll fucking kill them first.”
“Exactly.”
If they got away—Nyomi would be next. I’d seen what they did to my guards. I wasn’t letting them get close to her. I put my view on the bamboo forest six feet away. “There’s no way out besides this door that we are in front of.”
Hiro turned his gaze to the forest. “So they’re hiding in there.”
“And waiting to kill us.”
Five acres of engineered wilderness sealed under glass and steel.
My graveyard of traitors.
At first glance, it looked peaceful. Tall shoots of black, red, and green bamboo reached for the sky, their stalks polished smooth by time, their leaves swaying in the dark. But the serenity was a lie. This forest wasn’t built for beauty.
