“The necklace is her weak spot, Enzo. The Preacher is just another tool to her. She doesn’t do loyalty. She sacrifices anyone for her own gain. Morality isn’t a concept she recognizes.” I tell him as I lean back. “She’ll push him toward the talks, knowing he’s walking into his death. That’s her move. The Preacher dies, but she keeps the routes. The contacts. That’s what she wants.”
Tatiana is worse than him.
I once thought she was my friend. I once carried her bleeding body out of a kill zone. She jumped in front of a bullet for her sister, and in that moment, I really believed she had a heart.
I was fucking wrong.
I inhale slowly.
She played me. Like she plays everyone.
“If we don’t do this, she comes after Lily. And Enzo, I won’t let that happen. I will end Tatiana for that. If you want her alive for whatever game you’re playing, approve this plan. We end the Preacher, then you move fast before she gains more ground.”
“Where is the necklace?” He asks.
“In a safe in my panic room. Decadence is locked down. No one moves without approval. It’s as secure as it gets.”
“I’ll come and collect it.”
I shut the system down completely, watching the screen turn blank makes me smile.
“It doesn’t belong to me or you. It’s Lily’s. Until I know what’s on that drive, and that Lily is safe, it doesn’t leave my house.” The fact that I hold that necklace is the only reason she’s still breathing.
I don’t trust anyone else with that.
“If it has to go to Tatiana to keep Lily safe, it will. That’s not negotiable. I’ve got you the Preacher. I’ll kill this man in New York and leave the message. A deal is a deal. If she delivers, I deliver.”
This only works because Enzo is the one man Tatiana won’t challenge head-on. The one she hides from. Otherwise, if it were anywhere else, she would have started the war already to get it.
“That’s not to say I won’t copy everything on the drive first,” I tell him.
A pause.
“Fine. Get some sleep. I’ll get clearance with Frankie. You need backup?” He snaps.
“Keller. Grayson. Luca. Frankie. I’ll bring Conan, Charlotte, and the Twins.”
“I’ll send Romeo. I want eyes there,” he confirms.
“Tomorrow? We need to get this done faster than they think we will,” I ask.
I need this moving.
“Yes.”
“I’ll write the note. Decadence letterhead. Clear as fuck who it’s from. I’ll add my own touches. The Preacher will know it’s me. We need to figure out where to hold the talks. Neutral ground. Access routes. Advantage stays ours. We need all this on the invitation we’re leaving,” I tell him.
I’ve already buried too many men for him to doubt my intent.
“Leave the note to me, I’ll have Romeo take it to New York. I have a few connections we can use that will act as peace holders for us.”
We’re both smart enough not to say the quiet part out loud. No one mentions the plan to murder the Preacher the second he sets foot outside the peace talks. We don’t need to. We both know exactly how this ends.
And no doubt the Preacher will be planning the same thing. For me. For Declan. Probably for all of us.
Tatiana might be able to get him here, but that doesn’t mean she controls what he does once he arrives.
“I’ll fill the Quinn’s now. Then I’ll get a couple of hours of sleep.”
