So, I guess in the end, it wasn’t that difficult, but they don’t need to know that. I put Stella on the innocent list. She couldn’t manage something covert if her life depended on it. I consider her my personal informant.
My father hums, deliberating. “And he won’t let you leave the premises?”
“No,” I snap, glaring at the desolate employee green space like it’s a prison yard. “I can’t set foot off the grounds. They watch me everywhere.”
If I wasn’t a sacrifice, that would be enough for them to brainstorm a plan to pull me.
Instead, he sticks to what’s important. “Can you get the list of which members are scheduled and surveil them otherwise?”
An itch clambers up my throat. Maybe it’s a scream.Forsaken.
Bernard is the one who keeps the schedule, so that should be interesting.
“I’ll make that the goal this week. I’m also having dinner with Cash Noire, so maybe he’ll have a fresh perspective.” I swallow down the anxiety threatening to make me lose my nerve for my next inquiry and just go for it. “Can you tell me who I’m working for or how it connects to Kazakhstan? It might help me determine where to focus. There are so many variables here that it’s truly searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“Out of the question,” my father barks. “Anonymity was promised to the client.”
It’s almost always promised because it is protection even if we bungle the mission. My father manages the clients. It’s rare for a handler to even know those details. Assets grow close with their handlers and can wrangle information out of them. My father is a brick wall.
“Of course,” I bite out, winding and unwinding a tendril of my hair around my finger. “But give me something since I think you’ve got me set up to betray a formidable organization.”
Not an ounce of feeling threads his response. “All the more reason not to divulge it. The risk is too great.”
For him. For the client.
For me, the risk is already insurmountable.
“Did you inform the client that Axel Noire is suspicious?” I ask, though the answer will surely wreck me.
If they have that knowledge and this goes poorly, I will be neutralized. If they claim not to care, the plan to neutralize me is likely in the works. And if my father didn’t inform them, then he is making the decision to keep the client in the dark and abandon me here all on his own.
“It was discussed, but I assured them you were savvy enough to use it to your advantage.” My father chuckles under his breath—a hint of pride that knots my gut. “You’re doing better than you think, angel. The employment. The close relationships with the Noires and the executive staff. They’re impressed. You can turn this around. We need more on the members. Focus on them. There’s a highly coveted ball later this month. We’ll work on finding an angle to get you invited.”
He pauses for a second to see if I dare a rebuttal before finishing with, “Never say die.”
“Sag niemals sterben,” I repeat.Never say die.
Though when he ends the call, it loiters in the air as more of a threat than encouragement.
AXEL
Arbitration Day
Meeting One: Sebastian Lombardi, Italian Outfit, and Hugh Flannery, Irish Outfit, from Pittsburgh
“I’ve been shmoozing the county official for fifteen months, handling all theinfluentialwork and waiting for this sanitation contract to open up,” Flannery begins once we’re all seated with drinks, “and then he busts into my bar and chokes—”
“It’s my fucking territory,” Lombardi bellows. “End of.”
“Brilliant,” I deadpan, putting my glasses on to study the map, the boundary lines for the contract, and each family’s jurisdiction, “but that’s not how this is done. Are you still open to arbitration?”
Lombardi grunts his consent.
My gaze flicks up with a reminder. “You sought the meeting and agreed to my intervention. I’m giving up my time to settle the dispute. If you go against my verdict when you leave here, your membership will be suspended for a year, and you will never receive a private meeting again. Understood?”
“Understood,” he growls, chugging his whiskey.
My six security guards, positioned on the perimeter of the room, have weapons in hand, but when you get past Lombardi’s penchant for smashing people’s faces in, he’s all bark, so this will be painless.
