Dante's pulse quickened. "You're sure?"
She looked directly at him. "I saw him."
"When?" Rocco asked.
"Before I escaped.” Her voice shook. "He was yelling at Hale."
Rocco's expression darkened. "About what?"
Sofia hesitated, and then she whispered the words that changed everything. "They were turning on each other."
No one spoke until Rocco finally broke the silence. "Keller doesn't trust Hale anymore."
"Or Hale doesn't trust Keller,” Dante said.
"They're fractured,” Rocco said.
Dante smiled for the first time since arriving. "Good."
Rocco looked at him. "A divided enemy makes mistakes."
Lark looked between the two men. "So we use their mistrust against them."
Rocco nodded. "We make them think one betrayed the other."
Sofia frowned. "How?"
Dante reached into his jacket and unfolded Rafael's bloodstained list and held it up. "We already have everything we need."
Lark caught on immediately. "The names."
Rocco smiled. "If Hale thinks Keller gave us the list, and Keller thinks Hale leaked it?—”
Sofia's eyes widened. "They'll destroy each other."
Dante looked back toward the mission. For three years, he'd dreamed of storming through the front gate with guns blazing. Now he realized that wasn't how Keller would fall. Men like Keller didn't fear bullets. They feared losing control. He looked at the three people standing beside him—his sister, the woman he loved, and the man he'd come to trust with both their lives.
He looked back at the compound. "Tonight," he said quietly, "we end this." No one argued because every road that had brought them together had been leading to this moment. Keller had spent decades building an empire from fear. Before the sun rose again, they intended to tear it down.
Rocco
The mission looked different through a sniper scope—less like an old church and more like a fortress. Rocco lay prone on the ridge overlooking the compound, his heartbeat slow and steady as he watched guards rotate positions beneath the floodlights. He was studying patterns because everything had one. Keller had built his empire on control because control created routine. What he wasn’t counting on was Rocco knowing that routine created weakness—and he had found Keller’s weakness.
He lowered the scope. "They've changed their pattern."
Dante crawled beside him. "How?"
"They're nervous." Rocco pointed toward the east fence. "There are three men instead of two at the fence, and the tower has two snipers now, instead of one.”
Lark settled beside them, keeping low in the tall grass. "What does that mean?"
"It means Keller's scared,” Rocco said.
Dante looked surprised. "Scared?"
"He lost Rafael.” Rocco ticked points off on his fingers. "He lost the journal, and most importantly, he’s lost Sofia. Plus, he knows we have names." He looked back through the scope. "Menlike Keller don't reinforce security because they're confident. They reinforce it because they're running out of options."
“So our odds just got better?” Dante asked.
