I scan fast, breaking it apart instinctively. It isn’t an email. It’s a puzzle.
Coordinates.
A first name.Michael.
A last name.Stevenson.
A date two weeks out.
Peace talks.
A message.Leave invitation for Preacher.
And then, at the bottom, plain English.
I will send one of my men to the peace talks. He will collect my payment. If he doesn’t return… You know who I’ll be coming after, Drago.
My hand stills.
Lev can’t see my screen.
Good.
Because I know exactly what she’s threatening.
Lily.
The message deletes itself.
Before rage can take over, I finish the final string of code and corrupt the system from the inside out. Burn it. Salt the earth.
Fuck her.
I lean back hard in my chair, muscles screaming. “Thanks, Lev. You can go back to bed, old man.”
“Everything good?” he asks.
“It will be.”
He drops from the call. Enzo stays silent as I pull up the coordinates.
A bar in New York.
“I’ll get Frankie on the call, Drago. I’ll get clearance into New York.”
I rub at my temple. “You read Russian, Enzo?”
“Of course I fucking do.”
“So it looks like the plan is… I kill Michael in that bar. And I leave the Preacher an invitation for a peace talk.”
A beat.
“Hm. I don’t like the sound of this.”
Neither do I.
I crack my knuckles, already mapping every possible betrayal.
