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I stand. Silk whispering. The city bright and useless beyond the glass.

“We are going to take the Lucci men apart,” I say. “Not all at once. Piece by piece. Routes. Money. Men. The ones who think they are too small to matter and the ones who think they are too big to bleed. I want a strategy on the table before noon.”

Mackensie’s eyes are already working.

“And the boy?”

I pause. Not because I have forgotten him. Because I very much have not.

“He will play his part,” I say, my voice low, contemplative.

Mackensie nods. I leave him in the living area and walk toward the bathroom.

There will be time for Elias. There will be time to see whether he kept the paddle in his bag like a good boy or whether he panicked and tried to throw my gift in a river.

The tracker will tell me.

And then I will know whether he can serve me in more ways than one.

6

ELIAS

The city is louder in daylight.

Less honest, too. At night you can admit you are hunting something. In the morning you have to look like a happy carefree boy on his way to grab coffee.

I walk with my backpack tight against my spine and the secret in it heavier than it has any right to be.

The paddle…

Small. Leather. Sitting in the inner pocket like it belongs there. It does not belong there. It belongs in his hand.

The thought hits and my face goes hot on a public sidewalk.

I see the elevator. The Stop button. My trousers at my ankles and Dmitri’s palm cracking against my ass until I was hard and furious and still obeying.

Then I see the paddle instead. Harder. Colder. A man like Dmitri would not use it gently. He would make me count. He would make me thank him. He would put me over his knee in that huge apartment and work me until I could not pretend this was just a hustle.

My stomach flips. The heat low and stupid and immediate. I almost walk into a man with a dog.

“Sorry, I…”

The man mutters something and I keep moving.

Business. I need business.

My phone buzzes. Zane. Of course it is Zane…

ZANE: Favour time. I need access to the books at Keller’s. Not the public crap. The real members list. Names. Top secret shit. The quiet schedule. Who comes when. You said you’d make it worth my while. This is how we work, you know that. I help you, you help me. Do not ghost me on this.

I stop at the light and read it twice…

The members list.

Top secret.

The kind of thing Steven would burn a career over. The thing a man like Dmitri would burn a person over.