“And Rome?” I asked.
Luca glanced at another message. “He’s in the tunnels. Said something feels off. Supply looks light. Thinks some of the bricks are wrong. Not Crow-made.”
I exhaled slowly. “So sabotage.” Tonight felt like it would never end.
“Maybe.” He pocketed the phone. “Pick a direction. The docks or the dirt.”
Before I could answer, my own phone started vibrating in my pocket, the kind of vibration that carried. I swore Nikolai had programmed my phone to react differently to his calls. I couldn’t prove it but the vibration was different. The screen lit up, name glowing like a warning.
Nik.
I sighed. “That didn’t take long.”
Luca smirked. “He’s probably already drafted the lecture.”
“Yeah.” I pressed accept. “Nik.”
“Are you alive?”
I blinked. “Pretty sure.”
“You sound like shit.”
“Occupational hazard.”
He didn’t laugh. That was the first sign this wasn’t about cleanup.
I could hear voices in the background, the subtle murmur of dynasty chatter, low music, the clink of glasses. Wherever he was, it wasn’t war room noise.
“You saw it,” I said.
“With the rest of the world,” Nik tone lowered in a way he didn’t want others to hear. “It was trending before dessert. You’ve gone viral, brother.”
“Congratulations to us.”
“Don’t joke.”
I rubbed my jaw. “You calling for damage control?”
“I’m calling because you’re my brother.” He paused. “And because that footage didn’t just make the rounds through the streets. It hit the dynasty channels, Vince. The fuckingupper tables.”
“I figured.”
“No, I don’t think you did.” His voice dropped lower. “They watched it in gold rooms. With champagne. It wasn’t just Crows. It was Thorne, Vale, DuPont, Adams, every dynasty tied to the upper ledgers. They saw you drag a man by his throat through a club. Laughing.”
I didn’t respond. Because I did remember grinning.
Nik went quieter. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have handled it. But, fuck, Vince, everyone saw it.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Bullshit. You went feral in front of every dynasty feed. You think I don’t know what that means?”
I said nothing.
“Everyone saw it. The whole polished world you’ve spent your life pretending doesn’t exist — they all just got reminded that Vincent Crow is the man people whisper about when they tell their children to behave.”
I exhaled. “Then they’ll behave.”
