Chapter One
The man was still talkingwhen Wolf decided he was done listening.Outwardly though, Silas “Wolf” O’Rourke remained exactly as he had been for the last twelve minutes.He was seated, composed, one ankle rested over his opposite knee, tablet balanced lightly in his hand.
Wolf made sure his expression didn’t change.The debtor’s voice dragged on, a thin, fraying thread of excuses.Numbers, names, half-truths stitched together with panic.Wolf let it run.There was a rhythm to lies, and this one had started tripping over itself three minutes ago.
He tapped the screen once.
“Stop,” Wolf said.
The debtor obeyed instantly.He looked sheet white and was sweating profusely.Wolf lifted his uninterested gaze.He studied the man the way he studied everything else, clinically, without urgency.
The guy was in his late thirties, and there was a visible sweat stain on the collar of his cheap shirt.He also kept bouncing his left knee in a staccato rhythm that didn’t match the story he’d just tried to sell.
“Start again, Smith,” Wolf said.“Slowly.”
“I told you,” Smith said, voice shaky.“It was Tuesday.”
“It wasn’t.”Wolf turned the tablet toward him.“Friday.Three forty-two.”
Smith leaned in, squinting.“That’s not right.”
“It is.”Wolf tapped the screen once and continued.“You used to skim small amounts.A few hundred here and there.Easy to hide.”
Smith’s face went pale.
“But this time,” Wolf continued, “ten thousand went missing in one transfer.”
Smith swallowed hard, eyes darting toward the door, then back.
“I was going to fix it,” he said quickly.“I just needed time.”
“You had time,” Wolf said.“Now you don’t.”
Silence stretched.Wolf didn’t raise his voice ...he didn’t need to.Smith was beginning to unravel.
“Where’s the money?”he asked.
Smith hesitated.“I don’t—”
Wolf tapped again, bringing up the transfer trail.
“You moved it through three accounts,” he said.“Then sent it out.”
He pointed to the final line.“Here.”
Smith stared at it, breathing faster now.
“I just passed it on,” he said.
“Like before?”Wolf asked.
A pause.Then Smith nodded weakly.“Yeah.Same as before.I take a cut, move the rest.That’s it.”
“And this time?”Wolf asked.
Smith dragged a hand over his face.“He told me to send more.”
“Who?”Smith hesitated, then gave in.“Callahan.Derek Callahan.”
