The line clicks and silence falls.
“What happened?” Cian’s wide eyes meet mine.
“She must have been near the time limit and Erik cut her off.” Shit. We barely got anything out of her other than a confirmation that she’s alive but with no idea for how long. “I had so many questions.”
“Same. What did she mean by all the stuff she wanted to say?”
I shrug and start dismantling the phone just in case. “Maybe she had some information to help us or news about Rocky. He was still in a coma when I left.” With the phone in pieces, I snap the SIM card and toss it out the window. “So, if Hexagon knows we’re on to them, then maybe we don’t need to be as sneaky.”
“What are you thinking?” Cian angles toward me, his brow raised.
“What if we go loud? We’ve been sneaking about for weeks now and it’s clearly not working. So we flip it. We go loud and turn our actions into a beacon. If nothing else, maybe it’ll get thisHawkguy to finally show himself.”
“Loud,” Cian repeats, nodding slowly. “Alright, so how do we do this?”
My plan was simple on paper but much harder to put into practice. The list of names and addresses I stole from the auction becomes a hit list and together with Cian, we start hunting them down one by one. Cian tracks them down and I go in for the torture and the kill. Some are quick and take their own lives before I can get a word out of them and others spill their entire history, but there’s rarely anything of use. Those lower down the list who are just the nobodies are much more eager to sell out Hexagon generals when they think it will help save their life, but I swiftly put an end to all of that.
No one stays alive.
We travel to Spain and slaughter every person we get our hands on and as the weeks tick by and Hexagon grows smarter, we just grow more determined. Those who flee Spain are easily hunted down, and Cian gets his hands dirty more than once when thosewho are scared surround themselves with even more security than before.
Part of it is fun. Freeing.
Knowing that everything we do gives our remaining friends and family back home a chance is the best motivation. When we aren’t killing, we’re fucking. It’s hard to keep our hands off each other once we accept that we’re likely heading toward a certain death. Dismantling Hexagon may be the last thing we ever do. But it will be worth it.
Erik manages to make contact a few times by the time March rolls around, but it’s nothing more than a hint here and a warning there. War has broken out in New York between Hexagon, the Russians, and the remaining Italians. It’s a Mafia war for the history books while Cian and I are stuck assassinating snakes all across Europe. By the time we make it to Greece, tracking the next asshole on the list, there’s only a handful of names left and Hawk is still a mystery.
Blood spurts from the perfectly thin slice across the general’s neck and he slumps forward, dead, against his desk. I wipe the bloodied blade on his shoulder as the door opens and Cian walks in holding a small red book.
“Any luck?”
“No,” I sigh. “He was as tight-lipped as the last three. At this rate, the list will be complete and we’ll be no closer to this Hawk bastard.”
“I might have something to help with that. That other fucker was trying to burn these in the lounge. I saved what I could after I killed him.”
“Are you okay?” Concern peaks inside me. Cian’s choice to stay away from the torture and the majority of the killing has been good for his mental health, but I’m wary of any step that might send him back to the dark place.
“I’m okay,” he replies honestly with a warm smile. “Honestly. Saoirse would have been proud.”
I meet his warm smile and then nod to the book. “So, what did you find?”
“This guy.” He points to the dead general bleeding out over his keyboard. “He’s responsible for sending slaves from Europe to the Middle East and Africa. I’m wondering if we’ve been going the wrong way. We’re tracking these assholes across Europe, but maybe that’s exactly what Hexagon wants us to do.”
Straightening up, I grab the corpse by the collar and haul him away from the keyboard as a new light on his computer catches my eye. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it. If Hexagon thinks they’ve been compromised, then what better way to deal with it than lead us away from where they’re operating while also having us take out all the people they’d considered compromised in the first place?”
Bringing his computer to life with the click of a button, I glance up at Cian. “You think Hexagon has us doing their cleanup for them?”
“Their whole business relies on secrecy and we broke that seal. Maybe we’ve been playing into their hands all this time.”
“But if these assholes knew this,” I say, jerking my thumb at the dead general, “Why wouldn’t they talk, try to save themselves?”
“Maybe they didn’t know. But Africa?” Cian turns the book toward me. “None of the money I ever tracked touched Africa. Did yours?”
I shake my head and turn back to the computer. “Africa’s pretty fucking big, though. I mean—wait!” Clicking on the flashing email, a series of messages springs through rapidly from an encrypted email. It’s stampedUrgentwith details on how Hawk is pissed and will be hosting a meeting himself and attendance is mandatory. “Look!”
Cian leans over me, his chest brushing against my shoulder as he studies the messages. “It’s a trap, right?” Another message pops up with an address and a time.
