No one answers, and the silence stretches too long. I clench my fists.
Oleg says quietly, quickly: “Witnesses saw her forced into a vehicle. Clean extraction. No hesitation.”
I brace my hands on the table and lower my head, forcing myself to breathe. If I let the panic rise, I will tear the entire city apart and accomplish nothing except satisfying my own rage.
Nika steps closer, already keyed up. “We go after them directly. Sweep every property he owns. Every warehouse. We start breaking bones until someone talks.”
Liev nods, his voice tight with fury. “We hit everything at once. He hides; we drag him out.”
Their instincts are predictable, and for most men they would be correct, but Hinto is not most men.
“No,” I say.
Both of them turn toward me.
“He wants me to panic,” I say, keeping my voice even. “He wants us loud and desperate, because desperate men make mistakes. If we storm the city, he moves her or uses her to bait us again, and we all wind up dead.”
Liev’s nostrils flare. “So we sit here?”
“We think,” I reply. “Then we hurt him where it actually matters.”
I have been watching Hinto for months, mapping his business the way a surgeon studies arteries before cutting. Everyone focuses on shipments, guns, and money, but power always comes back to something smaller and softer.
Family.
I gesture for Oleg to pull up the files the team has been collecting. Names scroll past, trusts, shell companies, private accounts that connect in one place over and over again.
Ryder.
The name appears so often it might as well be branded into the screen.
“I’ve seen this one everywhere,” Liev says, sliding a thick folder toward me. “Tuition payments a few years ago. Drivers. Medical expenses. Everything routes back to this heir.”
Heir.
Only one.
We all make the same assumption without saying it aloud: a son, protected and groomed, the future of his empire.
“If he thinks he can take mine,” Liev growls, “We take his.”
I flip through the dossier, memorizing routines and locations, noting security gaps and predictable habits. Routine is always the weakness. Everyone believes tomorrow will look like today.
“Tonight,” Liev says. “Before he expects us to move.”
I close the folder and meet his eyes.
“Tonight,” I agree. “We take Ryder cleanly and disappear. No collateral, no noise. When Hinto realizes what’s missing, it will already be too late.”
Around us, the men begin organizing routes and teams, voices low and efficient.
My thoughts settle into something sharp and usable.
Hinto wanted me to back down and give it all up for her.
Instead, he has signed his own death certificate.
Chapter 32
