Page 20 of Veil of Secrets
“I’ve been busy.”
“No. It’s more than that.” His voice lowers. “This girl—”
“Don’t start.”
“I’m not judging. I’m just asking—”
“She’s not involved.”
He folds his arms. “You gutted a guy two hours after talking to her.”
“She didn’t cause this.”
“But she might shift it.”
I stare past him. Let the wind hit my face.
Elara Ricci.
She’s not the reason I’m bleeding men in alleys and piers. She’s not the one who made the Brotherhood rot from the inside.
But she’s the first thing in a while that didn’t feel like more decay.
She stood her ground. Didn’t flinch when I killed that drunk outside her club. Didn’t try to seduce, plead, or fake fear. She saw the blood, looked me in the eye, and told me I didn’t get to ask if she was okay.
That stuck.
Not because I liked it.
Because it was honest.
And honesty’s a dying breed around here.
“She’s not mine,” I say, finally. “But she reminded me what sharp feels like.”
Luca says nothing.
The runner’s body is starting to cool.
Blood’s still leaking, slow and thick.
I look down again, then back to Luca.
“Clean it.”
He nods, already pulling out his burner.
I step away from the pier’s edge. Rain soaks through my shirt now.
I feel it again—that thread in my chest. Not emotion. Not interest. Just... awareness.
Elara doesn’t know it, but she’s in this now.
And if she comes with chaos?
Fine.
The Brotherhood needs a little chaos to clear the rot.
