He took one last drag of his cigarette, then set it down in the ashtray and met my eyes.
"How deep is the cut this time?"
I didn’t sit. Not yet. I looked around the room. At the silence. The grime. The weight of a thousand secrets soaked into the walls.
"Deep enough to kill her."
He nodded once. Slow. Like he’d already read this script. He gestured to the chair across from him. I sat.
“You have a name?”
“Selene.”
He exhaled through his nose, pulled a yellow legal pad from the drawer, and grabbed a pen that looked older than God.
“Then you’re going to need more than leverage. You’re going to need blood.”
I didn’t flinch. Didn’t breathe.
“Then draw me a map.”
He started writing. Didn’t ask questions. Didn’t ask for payment. Because some men still understood what a Lawlor promise was worth.
Royal
I didn’t need a gun for this. Didn’t need a knife, or a leash, or Wolfe standing behind me like a threat in a suit.
I had the file.
And that was enough.
He was already sweating before I sat down. Tapped the cigarette against the table even though I didn’t light it. Just the sound made him twitch.
Selene’s old contact. Some finance fuck with bad Botox and a bigger ego than common sense. He still thought he had options. Still thought this wasn’t war.
That made it fun.
I leaned back, let him look at the folder I set between us. Thicker than it needed to be, heavy enough to hurt if I slammed it shut across his fingers. I didn’t. Not yet.
His eyes didn’t lift.
“I told her I was out.”
His voice cracked. I smiled.
“Sure you did.”
I tapped the cigarette again. Slow. Measured. I liked the sound. The rhythm of it. I’d watched Loyal play piano when we were kids—he made it a prayer. I made it a weapon.
“You think I give a fuck what you told her?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
I opened the folder. Slid one photo across the table. His signature. Her signature. Wire transfers that didn’t go where they were supposed to. Then I hit play on the voice memo. Selene’s voice filled the room.
“You do your part, and if the Lawlors fall, I make sure your name comes out clean. That’s the deal. You keep quiet, and I keep your daughter out of it.”
He turned gray.
