I smile. It’s a terrifying, jagged expression. Let them try. I’ve been waiting for a reason to kill something lately.
I lean my head back and close my eyes. I see her apartment door closing. I see the way she cracks her fire escape window just an inch so she can hear the city breathe. I see her fingers trembling when she lights a cigarette outside the club, her eyes scanning the crowd and never landing on me—even when I’m standing ten feet away, watching the smoke curl around her lips.
She thinks I’m the danger. She doesn’t realise I’m the only thing standing between her and a far worse monster.
The driver clears his throat, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “Back to the house, Mr?—”
I cut him off with a look that makes him go pale. No one says my name unless I give it to them. Not anymore. Not since I became the ghost of this city.
We turn off the main drag. The streets get narrower,slick with grease and rain, the part of town where I keep the life my sister pretends doesn’t exist.
This is where I build my empire out of threats and silence. This is where I’ve built the cage she’ll end up in—whether she walks into it willingly or I have to carry her there, kicking and screaming.
Another buzz.
She’s marked.
My jaw locks so hard I hear the bone creak. My hand tightens around the phone until the plastic groans in protest.Marked.Like she’s property. Like she’s a game to be played.
They think they’re playing with me. They’re not. They’re just providing the fuel for the fire I’m about to set.
I roll my shoulders, tasting smoke and iron. She has no idea how deep this rot runs. No idea what her little fire-escape heart stumbled into when she walked into that club and dared to look me in the eye.
She thinks I’m only her best friend’s brother. She thinks this is about wanting to fuck her. She thinks she has a choice in how this ends.
I chuckle, a low, mean sound that echoes in the plush interior of the car.
This isn’t a choice. It’s a war. And tonight was the last time I play nice.
When the car stops, I slide out, pulling the collar of my coat up against the freezing rain. I head for the warehouse door at the end of the alley—a place where screams don’t travel.
Inside, the lights hum with a sick, yellow vibration. My men look up from the table, their eyes wide and flicking away the moment they see the look on my face.
I drop the phone onto the table. The message glows:She’s marked.
Jax, a man whose hands only stop shaking when he’s holding a knife, risks a glance. “Sir?”
I smile, and it’s the most violent thing in the room. “Find out who thinks she belongs to them. Find out who’s been watching her besides me.”
“And when we do?”
My fingers brush the scarred, heavy edge of the hook strapped under my sleeve—the jagged piece of metal that replaced what I lost, the one I haven’t shown her yet. Not until I’m ready to watch her scream.
“When we do,” I murmur, the words thick with the scent of upcoming slaughter, “we show them exactly what ownership costs in this city.”
The warehouse hums with a heavy, suffocating silence. A dozen men hold their breath. They know that when I look like this, someone is going to die.
I light another cigarette, letting the smoke curl lazy in the air. “Find out who’s sniffing around Wendy Darling. Every name. Every face. I want to know what they eat for breakfast before I kill them.”
Jax swallows hard. “And if it’s someone close to the family? Someone your sister knows?”
I laugh. Short. Sharp. Cruel as a winter storm. “Closer just means I don’t have to drive as far to dispose of the body.”
I lean against the table, flicking ash onto the concrete. In my mind, I see her again—sitting in that booth,glaring at me like she wasn’t already soaking wet underneath. She thinks she hides it well. She doesn’t. I knew she’d show up tonight. I knew she’d break her own rules just to feel the weight of my gaze on her skin.
And now she is caught. Pinned. Mine.
“Peter,” Jax says, his voice a cautious whisper. “You sure this is worth the mess? That girl… she’s the only thing that links you to your sister’s world. If this goes sideways, you lose the only piece of humanity you have left.”
