“That’s the deal,” Dem confirms. “We all commit enough soldiers to end this once and for all.”
“And how do we keep the Ghost from hacking into the comms again? Word is you had a spot of trouble with your last operation.” Yuki smiles like the cat that ate the canary. Elio must have told her—the two of them have always been close, probably the only reason she showed up tonight instead of telling us all to fuck off.
“We’ll need someone who can match the Ghost’s capabilities,” Matvey says. “Someone who can secure our real communications while feeding them false intel through a compromised channel they think they’ve hacked.”
Marcus shrugs. “And who the fuck might that be? We’re not exactly swimming in NSA contacts.”
“I’ve got a former military contractor on my payroll,” Vincent offers. “But bringing him into something this big, with this many families involved, he’ll only want to deal with me directly.”
Elio rolls his eyes. “A lot of fucking good that does us. How can we trust him if we can’t even talk to him?”
Yuki taps ash onto the floor. “The Yakuza has connections to cyber specialists in Tokyo. They won’t come to the US though. Remote support only.”
“Not ideal,” I say.
“The Irish have got fuck-all in terms of tech,” Marcus drawls. “We’re old school. Guns and fists.”
“Those are some shit options,” Matvey mutters, raking a hand through his hair.
Marcus flips him off. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
But there is someone. Someone whose face has been flashing through my mind since the moment we started talking about tech. A gorgeous fucking computer science nerd who scored inthe ninety-ninth percentile on her MTI admissions. A woman I’ve been trying to keep away from my world, trying to protect from exactly this kind of shit.
Still, the clock’s running out. And thirteen days isn’t enough time to find someone else.
Thirteen fucking days until Katya gets handed over to Elio and I get locked into whatever arranged marriage my father’s already negotiating behind my back. Thirteen days to eliminate the Ghost who’s always three steps ahead, who has intel on every family in this city, who just hijacked our last operation and made us all look like amateurs.
And tonight, sitting at that poker table watching my father work the room, I know he’s not just testing whether I can eliminate the Ghost. He’s testing whether I have what it takes to wear the crown after him. Whether I’ve got the stomach for the kind of brutality that built this empire.
“I might have someone,” I announce. “I need a few days to sort it out with her. At the risk of being presumptuous, does this mean you’re all in? We move forward together or not at all.”
Marcus swings his boots off the table and slams his palm down on the plywood. “Fuck it. Yes. I’m sick of being fucked up the ass by this invisible menace.”
“The Triad is in,” Vincent confirms. “But if any of you betray this alliance, if one word of this gets back to our fathers or leaks to the Ghost before we’re ready, I will personally skin you alive. We’re trusting each other because we have to, not because we want to.”
“Lighten the fuck up, Vinny.” Every eye turns to Yuki. She takes her time finishing her cigarette, stubbing it out, letting the silence extend while she clearly enjoys making us wait. When she finally speaks, there’s dark amusement in her voice. “I’d prefer not to work with a bunch of testosterone-poisoned menwho think with their dicks instead of their brains. But it seems I have no choice in the matter.”
“We reconvene in a few days,” I say. “I’ll have the tech solution by then, and we’ll finalize positions and protocols. Until then, not a word to anyone.”
“Only trustworthy soldiers,” Dem adds. “All information is shared on a need-to-know basis. We can’t risk a leak.”
The meeting breaks up. I shake each person’s hand, looking them in the eye, sealing whatever fragile trust we’ve managed to build in the past hour.
This partnership won’t last. The moment the Ghost is dealt with, we’ll probably go back to trying to kill each other. Old grudges don’t die just because of one common enemy.
But for now, we’re united.
The others file out into the night, but Elio hangs back. Matvey and Dem drift over once the door closes behind Yuki.
“So who’s this tech genius you’ve got up your sleeve?” Elio asks, arms crossed.
I exhale slowly. This is going to sound insane. “Evelina Panova.”
Matvey’s eyebrows shoot up. “The blonde server you’re obsessed with?”
“I don’t obsess over women, asshole.”
“Sure.” Dem snorts. “Like you haven’t obsessively checking the security feeds every time she’s on shift.”
