Echoes of Secrets (Obsidian MC #7)

Chapter Fifteen

Mitchell

“It makes sense, Mitchell.”

“The fuck it does!” I shout, the force of my words ricocheting off the walls. “There’s no way in hell I’m allowing you to do this.”

“Excuse me... Allow ?”

Knox exhales heavily, muttering under his breath, “Oh, you’re in for it now.”

Evie steps closer, her glare sharp enough to cut through steel. “I am a grown-ass woman, Mitchell. I don’t need your permission to do a damn thing. You’re being irrational, and you know it. Sara’s right. It makes sense for me to be the one to go in.”

I whip my gaze to Seraphina, who visibly stiffens under the weight of my fury.

“Do you even realize what you’ve started?” I growl. “Do you honestly think I’d let her walk into this?”

Sara opens her mouth, but before she can speak, Amara chimes in from her spot next to Ghost, her seizure-alert dog stretched lazily at her feet. “I could do it,” she offers casually. “Heck, even Raven might work. We all three have medical conditions that could realistically have been exploited by an insurance company.”

“No fucking way, Snow,” Ghost snarls, his voice a low rumble that leaves no room for argument.

“Don’t even think about it, Pet,” Steel adds in his usual calm tone, though the edge in his eyes makes his stance crystal clear.

I glare at the two men, my temper flaring. “So you guys are against putting your women in danger but happy as hell to let mine walk right up to the devil himself? Fucking hypocrites.”

Neither of them bothers to argue because they damn well know I’m right.

Not that it matters. Even if they’d agreed, I wouldn’t let Snow or Raven go anywhere near this mess, but that’s beside the point.

“It’s not like I’m walking into a war zone,” Evie sighs, her voice softer now but still tinged with frustration. “It’s a public building. In the middle of the day. Full of people. I won’t be in any real danger.”

My jaw tightens as I start to argue, but she cuts me off before I can speak.

“And if Sara’s right,” she continues, “they already know about Snow and Raven. They’ve been here longer. They’re on his radar. But me? I’m still new. There’s a chance he doesn’t even know who I am.”

Her logic is sound, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stomach. Every instinct in my body screams to protect her, to shut this plan down and find another way.

It turns out that good old Uncle Viktor is a partner at one of the biggest law firms in the country. His specialty? Insurance-related cases. The same type of case Evie had to fight through when her insurance denied her approval for a prosthetic leg.

Go. Fucking. Figure.

While Viktor had no qualms about using his real name for his illegal activities, he operated under an alias, Anthony Valdez, for everything else. That’s why it’s taken us this long to connect the dots. It was only this morning that Knox got pinged from his facial recognition. It was definitely Viktor’s face. The same face that’s haunted my nightmares for the past ten years. But it wasn’t his name.

Smart fucker.

“He’s not going to let his two lives intersect,” I argue, the frustration thick in my voice. “This entire task is pointless. Sure, Evie can plant the drive Knox gives her into whatever computer he’s using in that building, but what are we really going to find? A pile of information on insurance scams? She’s risking her life for nothing.”

Knox leans back, calm as ever. “I’ve got complete control over their surveillance systems as we speak,” he says, his tone measured. “We’ve planned this down to the smallest detail. As long as everything goes according to plan, there’s next to no risk to Evie.”

“And even if there’s no dirt on his illegal activities,” Seraphina adds, her voice steady, “that doesn’t mean we won’t uncover something useful. I’m sorry, Your Highness, but until I reestablish contact with my inside source, this is the best option we’ve got.”

“Did Viktor’s daughter tell you why she had to go radio silent?” Ghost asks.

“Just that she’s had too many eyes on her lately,” she replies. “Even still, she didn’t know anything about the new shipment that’s supposed to arrive tomorrow.”

“I’ll give him our family money,” I snap, desperation creeping into my words. “All of it. I don’t need it. You don’t need it. The rest of our family is dead. That’s what he’s after, anyway. And as an Everhart, he’s entitled to a portion of it, anyway.”

Seraphina’s gaze hardens, her composure impeccable as always. “Father would roll in his grave at your words, Leander,” she says, her tone clipped. I catch the slight twitch of her arm like she’s about to put a hand on her hip and give me sass, but she reins herself in. I almost wish she wouldn’t. Maybe being around this crew will help her loosen up, stop being so damn proper all the time.

“It’s not about the money,” she continues, a sharp edge cutting through her words. “Sure, he needs it to pay off the loan before he loses a finger or two, but this is deeper than that. The Everhart massacre is still unsolved, and Viktor knows he’s wanted for it. With a single phone call, you could have him extradited back to Scotland and sentenced to life in prison for killing thirty-six people. Two of which were monarchs of a very old family line.”

Her words hang in the air, heavy and suffocating. She’s right, of course, but that doesn’t make this any easier to swallow.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” Maddy asks. “I mean, if Mitchell did do that, then Viktor would be dealt with, right?”

“Right, baby,” King says. “But that would take him off the streets. Viktor would be behind bars and can just as easily run his empire from the comfort of his cell.”

“Not to mention that he’s started something here that needs to be destroyed,” Seraphina adds. “Even if he does go to prison, his empire will stand strong.”

“Guess he got his crown after all,” I say.

Knox smirks, the glow of his laptop screen reflecting off his sharp features. “A crown made of corruption and deceit,” he says, fingers flying across the keyboard. “But every kingdom has its weak spot. We just need to find his and bring it crashing down.”

“Which is why we need the data from his office,” Seraphina presses, her tone unwavering. “It’s not just about what’s happening here. Viktor’s reach is global, and if we don’t dismantle his operations now, we’ll never get another chance this clean.”

I let out a frustrated sigh, running a hand through my hair. “I get it, but you’re all asking me to put her on the front line. Evie’s not a soldier. She’s not trained for this kind of thing.”

Evie’s voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “Stop talking about me like I’m not in the room.” She steps forward, her gaze piercing as it locks with mine. “I know the risks, Mitchell. And I know you’re scared. But this isn’t just about you or me. It’s about stopping him before he hurts anyone else. I bet some of those people he’s selling are just children.”

“You’re asking me to risk losing you,” I whisper, my voice raw.

“And I’m asking you to trust me,” she counters. Her fingers brush against mine, grounding me even as the room feels like it’s spinning. “This isn’t just your fight, remember. It’s ours.”

Silence falls over the room. I glance around, meeting the eyes of each person here. Ghost, Amara, King, Maddy, Venom, Sophie, Taylor, Knox, Steel, Blaze, Raven, Reynolds, and the always-quiet Delphi. And, of course, my dear sister, Seraphina. They’ve all been through their own hells. They know what it’s like to make impossible choices, and now, they’re asking me to make one.

“Fine,” I say, the word heavy on my tongue. “But we do this my way. Evie goes in, but she’s not going in blind. Knox, you’ll stay on comms the entire time. Venom, you’ll run backup from the van. And I’ll be close enough to get to her if anything goes wrong. I want an entire fucking team on that building, Taylor.”

He raises a brow but simply nods.

Knox nods, too, already pulling up blueprints of the law firm Valdez and Hughes. “Works for me. I’ll set up an earpiece for her. If anything even looks off, we pull her out.”

King crosses his arms, his expression unreadable. “I have an old acquaintance that I’ll plant inside the building. I’ll show you his picture before going in, Evie. If you feel like you need him, shove the topic of a storm into your conversation, and he’ll get to you right away. He’ll be listening.”

“I’ve been messing with the building’s electricity for a few hours now,” Knox says, an evil smirk playing on his lips. “When you go to your appointment at five, I’ll wait until you and Viktor have been talking for a bit. Then, I’ll cut the power completely. When he leaves to check on the situation, you’ll slide this pen drive into his computer and wait. It’ll take ninety seconds to copy everything from his hard drive to this. You don’t have to do anything; the drive will do all of the work. Once it’s done, just sit back down like nothing happened.”

Evie frowns, her brow furrowed in thought. “What about the power to the computer? Won’t it shut off, too?”

Knox shakes his head, not bothering to look up from his laptop. “Nope. That entire building is equipped with state-of-the-art computers. They have built-in batteries that last about an hour after losing their main power source. You won’t need Wi-Fi, either. I can monitor his internet activity remotely. But the files on his computer are encrypted. I could bypass the encryption, but that would take days, and we don’t have that kind of time. The shipment of animals, or people, arrives tomorrow.”

Evie nods slowly, her jaw tightening with determination. “Got it. Ninety seconds.”

“And if he doesn’t leave the room?” I ask. “If he just sits there and waits or asks Evie to leave and call back to reschedule?”

Knox glances up, his expression calm and calculating. “If he doesn’t leave, she’ll have to adapt on the spot. We’ll be in her ear. But we’ve already accounted for that scenario.” He leans back in his chair, folding his arms. “If he stays put, Evie can tell him she needs to step out to take a call or use the restroom. He’ll leave that room eventually. I won’t let the electricity come back on until he does. Then, she sneaks in, copies his computer, and sneaks out. I’ll still be able to watch her through the surveillance system. It has its own power source. It’s just that right now, it’s under my control.”

“And if he doesn’t let her leave?” I press, unwilling to let the conversation slide past the worst-case scenario.

Knox’s gaze sharpens. “Then you’ll be nearby, ready to move in. Surveillance gives us eyes on the room in real-time. If anything goes wrong, you’ll know immediately, and we’ll pull her out. But trust me, Mitchell, he’s not going to pass up the opportunity to check on what’s happening with the power. A guy like Viktor is paranoid as hell. He’ll want to personally handle it.”

Evie places a hand on my arm, her touch firm but reassuring. “It’s going to be fine,” she says softly, her eyes meeting mine. “We’ve planned for this. And besides, I’m tougher than you give me credit for.”

I know she’s right, but it doesn’t make the knots in my stomach loosen. “Just promise me you’ll get out at the first sign of trouble.”

“Promise,” she says, her voice steady and full of resolve.

As the group dives deeper into planning, outlining every possible contingency, I can’t shake the gnawing feeling twisting in my gut. The plan is solid on paper, but the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. And if anything happens to Evie, there won’t be a corner of this earth where Viktor can hide from me.