It was a delicate balance.
Mutual respect.
Mutual benefit.
But my father hiding in their tunnels threatened that balance. If the Ukiyo had allowed him sanctuary, they'd already chosen a side.
I opened my eyes.
Two of Reo's men entered the room carrying a large diagram. They spread it across the low table in front of us.
I walked to the table and leaned over the diagram before anyone spoke. My eyes found the main elevator entrance immediately. I'd studied partial maps of the Depths years ago when I first became the Dragon—one doesn’t inherit an empire without learning where its hidden pleasure spaces were.
But what I had years ago was old and incomplete.
The tunnels had been restructured since then.
The Depths’ main entrance was now through the restaurant's elevator. From there, the tunnels branched in twenty different directions. Ten led to private chambers. Five led to dead ends designed to disorient intruders. Five led deeper into the labyrinth where the most exclusive areas existed.
"Hiroko will guide us through here," I traced my finger along the correct path. "We'll take the main corridor to the third junction. Then east through the silk hall. That leads to the central chamber where the Council meets. If my father is anywhere in these depths, it's there."
Hiro crossed his arms. "The Ukiyo won't appreciate us bringing a small army into their territory."
"They chose a side when they let the Fox hide there."
“Good plan.” Reo cleared his throat. "However, we're not going through the main entrance.”
I quirked my brows.
“I spoke with Hiroko. She knows several service entrances that can get us inside and down there undetected. If we move fast and go masked, we can kill who we need to kill and get out before the Ukiyo even know we were there. At the bare minimum, they won't be able to prove that it was us that did anything."
I looked at him. That was smart. If we could operate in the shadows of their own territory, we'd avoid a direct confrontation with the Council. We'd keep the delicate political balance intact.
Or at least give ourselves plausible deniability.
"Good," I said. "We use the service entrance. We move fast. In and out before anyone has time to react."
Hiro shook his head. “I’m not going in masked. I want our father to know who the fuck is coming for him. I want him to see my face and see the hate I have for him in my eyes.”
Reo and I turned to my brother.
Hiro's jaw was set like concrete, his eyes burning with a cold fire that made even me—his own blood—want to step back. The muscles in his neck stood out like steel cables, and his knuckles had gone bone-white around the lollipop stick.
This wasn't stubbornness. This was the kind of resolve that had toppled empires and started wars.
No force on earth would move him on this.
I nodded. “Then, we go unmasked.”
Reo let out a long breath, clearly not happy with the decision.
Then another thought hit me. "What if this is a different sort of trap?"
Reo and Hiro both looked at me.
"What if this whole phone call was designed to pull us off the island? The call. The location. The scouts seeing my father's men. What if it's all bait?"
Hiro quirked his brows. “How would they know the island’s location.”
