“She won’t be alone,” Ignacio says. “Giselda is calculating. Obsessive. She’ll have loyalists. People who worship the idea of her more than the reality. Especially women who want to see another woman in power. Start with her known associates. Anyone who went dark seven years ago when she did.”
“I can dig through the dark web,” Tiernan offers. “See who disappeared quietly and didn’t come back screaming.”
“I’ll tap my network in Italy and New York,” Battista says. “She used to favor a particular surgeon in Naples before her marriage to Makoa.”
“Kingston?”
“I’ll monitor the ports. If she’s smuggling in product for her drug, she’s moving in bulk. Shipments leave footprints. I’ll find them.”
I nod, my jaw aching from how hard I’m grinding my teeth. “Good. We keep it quiet. No leaks. No mercy. There are still no solid sightings of her, but we’ve got a lead.” I toss the burner phone on the stone table. “Kron Vass. Possibly alive and nearby.”
Kingston’s grin is sharp and feral. “Let’s make sure he’s not alive for long.”
For the next bit, we plan our next move. I’m going to take lead on this one and they’ll wait in the shadows in case I need them.
“What if Cressida breaks before we find Giselda?” Kingston asks as we finish up. “She’s never had to deal with betrayal from someone so close to her before.”
My spine stiffens. “She won’t.”
“You sure about that?”
I don’t answer because I’m not.
Cressida is strong, but she’s also human. Haunted and scarred in places I can’t reach yet.
I catch glimpses of her in the bond, but it’s like trying to see her through a fogged mirror. She’s angry. Grieving and lost.She’s unable to understand why someone she loved could betray her in such a way.
I could have told her that people do it every day without remorse, but it is not my job to inform her of the harsh reality of this world. She already knows it.
It’s my job to hold her hand until she can find her footing again.
As much as I wanted this marriage to only be a convenience, it’s harder than I imagined keeping any form of distance between us. It’s not just the bond that has me craving Cressida Blackwell.
Everything about her intrigues me and makes me want to lay a claim to her that can’t be denied by anyone.
I slam my palm down onto the black table, and the flames in the stone fireplace flare, reacting to the surge of energy coursing through me. “She’s mine to protect. Mine to avenge. Nothing and no one touch her without my permission. Not even a ghost who didn’t know well enough to stay dead.”
Tiernan smirks. “So, what’s the move, Bogeyman?”
I meet his gaze and let the monster out. Just a little. Enough to let them understand I mean business.
“We hunt her. We drag her screaming from the shadows. And when I’m done with her . . .” My voice drops, lethal and low. “She’ll pray she had stayed dead.”
eight
Konstantin
KronVassthinkshe’sclever holing up in a condemned warehouse on the edge of the docks in Southside.
The intel came through clean. Heat sensors confirmed only one body inside. There’s been no movement for the past hour which means he’s either sleeping, or dead.
The latter would not be preferable, though, it would take a player from the Reaper’s board.
I don’t bother with subtlety, kicking the steel door open so hard it flies off its hinges and crashes into the far wall. Dust explodes into the air like a warning shot, and a man scrambles from behind a stack of crates with wild eyes. A skinny, twitchy bastard with a scar that bisects his lip and an aura that reeks of rot and desperation.
“Kron Vass,” I growl, stepping into the room like the wrath of the devil himself. “You’ve been a bad boy.”
“You . . . you shouldn’t be here,” he stammers, stumbling back. “I . . . I’m protected—”
