I meet his gaze without flinching. "I've never been more sure of anything."
He nods once, a gesture that carries the weight of permission and blessing and warning all at once. Then he turns to the others and says, "Drake has claimed the wish. Let's move on."
The conversation resumes around me, but I am already walking toward the door. The wish burns in my pocket like a coal, and I need information. I need to know exactly what kind of trouble she is in and exactly how I am going to fix it.
I need Luca.
The surveillance room sits three floors down, buried in the heart of Redthorne's security infrastructure where the walls are reinforced concrete and the equipment costs more than somecountries' defense budgets. Luca Valentina is exactly where Kon said he would be, sprawled in an ergonomic chair with four different screens casting blue light across his sharp features.
He looks up when I enter, and something in his expression tells me he has been waiting for this moment.
"Took you long enough." He spins the chair to face me and gestures at the primary monitor. "Sit down. You're going to want to see this."
I do not sit. I plant my feet and cross my arms and wait.
Luca knows better than to push, so he starts talking while his fingers fly across the keyboard.
"Katriana Bellrose. Twenty-four years old. Graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English Literature and a minor in Business Administration. Should be running a publishing house by now, but instead she's working at a bookstore called Stacked Pages for barely above minimum wage. Why is the question that needs asking."
“Agreed.”
Luca pulls up a photograph that makes my chest constrict. Katriana is in her work uniform with dark circles under her eyes. A ghost of a bruise is visible on her cheekbone but it’s not the same one she was trying to hide yesterday. She’s suffered at the hands of someone multiple times and the idea of someone putting hands on her for anything makes me see red.
“Give me some names, Luca. I’m hungry for blood.”
"Her father was Michael Bellrose. Small-time property developer who got in over his head about years ago andborrowed three hundred thousand dollars from a man named Victor Kedrov."
I fucking knew it. Just hearing that nasty fucking name brings bile up the back of my throat. Luca’s expression matches mine. We know that name and want to end it in the worst way possible.
"Michael died five years ago. Heart attack, supposedly, but the timing was suspicious. Left behind a wife with depression so severe she can barely function and two daughters. Katriana, the eldest, has been paying off her father's debt ever since." Luca's voice goes flat. "The original loan was three hundred thousand. Interest and fees have ballooned it to nearly the same amount despite five years of payments."
I shake my head. "That's impossible."
"It's Victor Kedrov." Luca shrugs. "The man is a predator. He gives loans he knows people can't repay because default is where the real profit lives. He can tell her any sort of number and she has no choice."
I scrub a hand down my face. Murder is not the name of the game here but I want to wrap my hands around that fucker’s throat and personally watch the light of his life fade as the reaper rips his soul from his chest.
Luca pulls up another screen, this one showing building schematics and business registrations. "But here's where it gets ugly. Victor doesn't just want his money back. He has establishments throughout the city. Hostess bars that are fronts for escort services. Escort services that are fronts for something worse. Women who can't pay their debts get offeredalternative arrangements."
My blood runs cold. "You think he’s threatened her with this? Trafficking her?"
“Makes sense. Something pushed her to make a wish.”
Luca pulls up surveillance from surrounding buildings and a few banking machines. I look at each of them featuring Kedrov entering Katriana’s building.
“What is this?” I want all the details.
"Kedrov outside Katriana’s building,” Luca confirms. “These were taken this morning. Showed up at her apartment at six a.m.”
“He puts hands on her.”
“How do you know?” Luca's jaw tightens as he asks.
“I bumped into her at the club like I mentioned earlier. What else do you have?”
"Her younger sister. Gemma. Nineteen years old, still in college."
The Red Letter Syndicate stands for something. Our people know we protect them. Kedrov doesn’t live within any sort of moral boundary. He’s the snake everyone should fear.
