Chapter 27 Plan B
Elias intercepts me at the bottom of the stairwell.
“Tristan did his part. He sent the feds to raid the warehouses of the Alvarezes, O’Callaghans, and the Carusos.” Urgency threads his words.
The voice in my head urges me to sprint back to the rooftop, grab Aria, and make a break for it.
But I can’t.
I need to protect Celia. I need to see if Cornelius found a heart for her.
“Listen, Ren!” Elias grips my shoulder. “You need to know what happened before you barge in to meet the bastard.”
“Hurry,” I sign.
“The Council is pissed. It’s a fucking bloodbath. They think the Kongs threw them under the bus because they’re the only ones who didn’t get hit by the feds.”
“Sofia didn’t do her part then?” I rasp.
“She did. She cornered Cornelius before the bullets started flying. She offered him a way out—she could make the feds disappear if he gave her the bounty on Aria, or if he didn’t listen, she’d set the feds on them.”
“What went wrong then?”
“He called her bluff. This was always a risk. We knew going in they have sway with the feds,” Elias says.
I shake my head. No. That’s not it.
Muffled cries and sounds of gunshots travel through the metal door. I pace the stairwell. Plan A should’ve worked. The pressure from the other families. Saving face in front of The Council.
What could this key unlock that’s more important than starting a war?
Elias says, “We can think through the whys later. But this is a last-ditch effort before Plan B.” He motions to the flash drive in my hand. “The drive contains financial records. Sebastian found receipts of heroin trade in the Golden Triangle. It’s not much, but it’s something.”
“So I go to him and bluff. Tell him I have a partial key and unlocked part of whatever it’s supposed to unlock.”
A slow smile carves Elias’s face. “Hail Mary. Just like Sri Lanka.”
“You fucker.”
He lets out a low chuckle. “I’ll cover you from a distance. Go now before it turns into an all-out war.”
I swing open the door and pause at the threshold. “And Tristan? Is he calling off his goons?”
“He’s waiting. Keeping the pressure on until my signal. If our bluff works, then I’ll tell him. And if it doesn’t…”
Silence falls, tense and thick.
“Plan B it is,” I answer and dash into chaos.
I take the rarely used back corridors, my heart hammering as images of Aria and Celia swirl through my mind.
Sofia’s with Aria. Sebastian’s supposed to get Celia back to her quarters and wait for updates. If we end up pulling Plan B, then our covers are blown and he’ll get her out of here.
Fuck, I never thought I’d need to count on the cold psychopath for something so important.
More screams reach my ears. Glass shatters in the distance. The smell of gunpowder and smoke seeps through the cracks under the doors.
A sharp sound slices through the air. Muted. Recognizable.
Gunshot fired from a silencer.
I duck, rolling out of the way as the bullet whizzes past me.
Three dark shadows dart in front of me—ski masks, tactical gear, too much noise, too wide on the approach.
Not our guys—Kongs or The Syndicate.
Wrong corridor to try to take me, bastards.
They’re dead men walking.
I throw out a kick, knocking the first one down while simultaneously firing a shot at the second. T-zone. His body drops before the shot’s echo finishes dying.
Spinning around, knife from my boot in hand, I jam the blade into the trachea of the first man as I unload two shots on the third—a head shot, a heart shot.
As the first man gurgles his last breaths, I finish him with a bullet between his eyes. Warm blood spatters across my knuckles, misting the wall behind him.
Four shots. None wasted.
By the time the third body hits the ground, I’m already moving.
Men like these are easy. Predictable.
Pulling off the dead men’s masks, I take pictures—dark-haired, olive skin. Could be the Carusos or the Alvarezes. A check on their forearms should tell me which family these thugs belong to.
Crucifix. The Italian mafia.
I wipe the knife on the dead man’s sleeve, gun ready in my grip, and keep moving.
Damn Carusos. Getting slippery there, Gabriel. Very unlike him. Which makes me wonder if something else is going on. I make a note to tell Elias later as I sprint toward my destination.
Seconds later, I crash into Cornelius’s office.
Sure enough, he’s there, eyes wild, phone in hand.
“What are you doing in here?” he barks. “Go outside. Protect the compound.”
Slowly, I close the door and step toward him.
His eyes widen, and for the first time in my life, I see fear flashing across his face. Is this the day Si Shen turns on him? Cornelius’s gaze drops to the gun in my hand.
“What are you doing, Ren?”
“I have an idea.” I motion with my free hand, my other firmly gripping my weapon. “One that’ll save the compound and stop the bloodshed.”
The old fox narrows his eyes. “Go on.”
“I heard the mystery woman wants the bounty and the key.”
“Impossible. I’ll die before handing it to her, whoever the fuck she is.”
Stopping before him, I slowly reach into my pocket and pull out the flash drive. “The key is only valuable because people don’t have what it unlocks.”
My vision narrows. I force my expression into calmness. No tells. No signs. Infinitely Si Shen.
I slide the drive to him. “I have one. First of three keys. Held onto it until I could verify it unlocked something. This is what I got so far. Working on the others.”
Cornelius’s mouth drops, his gaze pinned to the unassuming silver drive on the desk.
“We have the contents. She doesn’t. Put the bounty on hold. Let her hunt for it.” I grip the gun tightly in my free hand, afraid he’ll see the slight tremor.
“She’ll be hunting for nothing,” Cornelius murmurs.
“Yes.”
His lips twitch, a quiet calmness settling over his frame. He takes the drive and plugs it into his laptop. A ping slices through the air.
I hold my breath, my vision narrowing, tightening to the small sliver of space holding the man I hate.
The Kong patriarch stills, fingers hovering over the mouse.
One click. Then two.
The seconds drag on like decades.
He snaps his laptop shut.
“No,” he says.
An icy line shoots through my spine. The bluff didn’t work.
Dangerous eyes meet mine. “This is not enough, Ren, whatever this is. I don’t know where you got this from. The bounty is still on.” He leans over the desk and fists my bow tie. “Find the woman. Figure out what she wants.”
A death sentence. His words are a death sentence.
He shoves me hard.
Noises crash into my eardrums again as the rest of the room comes into focus. I pivot toward the door.
Plan A failed.
“Cornelius,” my voice comes out in a rasp. I hear his startled breath, knowing this is the first time I’ve spoken to him in years. “Is there a heart for Celia?”
The seconds tick by.
“Yes. But the donor is alive. A kindergarten teacher.” His voice is quiet and contemplative. “Take care of the mess outside, and I’ll give you her name.”
Relief crashes through me, my body moving, already following his instructions on instinct.
Celia can be saved. I just need to eliminate the donor. It’ll be easy.
But as soon as I step outside the office and hear Cornelius’s voice on the phone, my feet come to a stop.
The donor is alive. And she’s a woman.
Rule 3: No innocent women or children.
The floor falls beneath my feet. When I joined The Antihero Syndicate, we took a vow to end The Association. To dedicate our lives to it. But we had one unbreakable moral line.
We can’t kill innocents.
I told myself my marks were never clean. Never innocents.
After all, anyone the Kongs associated with was filth.
But this is different. The donor is a kindergarten teacher.
She’s an innocent.
Can I kill her for Celia? Cross the last line of morality I have?
Cornelius’s voice filters through the closed door. He’s on another call.
My senses sharpen, hearing amplified, vision clear.
There’s always Plan B, the nuclear option.
Cornelius is unprotected now.
No Cornelius. No bounty. Aria will be safe.
But what about Celia?
I think about Celia’s wide, innocent eyes, then Aria’s laugh when I twirled her around the roof.
I clutch my chest.
It hurts. All of it hurts.
A deranged laugh chokes in my throat as I adjust the gun in my grip.
I think about the kindergarten teacher singing songs with little kids, reading stories about the moon goddess and koi fish. Or maybe…a story about a prince in foreign lands.
I think about my mom. Her smile. Her voice. Her generous heart.
And I can’t do it. Kill her, the innocent teacher.
Plan B it is.
Spinning around, I inhale and steady my pulse, then reach for the doorknob.
One second. One hit. Easy.
I twist the knob and turn—
“Don’t.”
My weapon points toward the distorted voice before I face the shadows to my right.
A man—hoodie pulled low—steps out, a gun in his hand.
The safety’s still on. Idiot.
“Give me one reason not to blow your brains out,” I rasp.
He chuckles, the robotic voice sounding eerie—the fucker is using a voice modulator. “I thought Si Shen doesn’t talk. Clearly, I was wrong.”
Lifting his hands, he adds, “I’m going to reach into my pocket. Give you something that’ll solve all your problems.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
He ignores me and pulls out a USB drive identical to the one I just gave Cornelius. Then he crouches and sets it on the floor.
“What is that?” My gaze never leaves his.
“What the real key unlocks. But only part of it. That’s the best I can do.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“You don’t have any other choice now, do you? You kill Cornelius, your sister dies. You start a war. Your friends…Elias Kent, Sebastian McEntyre, they all die.”
My blood turns cold. How does he know about the others?
The man chuckles, clearly enjoying my shock.
“Take the drive. Go back inside. Tell Cornelius you gave him the wrong one.”
I snort. “The bastard won’t believe me.”
The man twirls his gun, the motion practiced, completely at odds with the novice mistake of leaving his safety on. “He’s desperate. And desperate men believe in anything.”
Not waiting for my response, the asshole strides away, his footfalls silent.
“Who are you?” I ask, already reaching down to grab the drive.
“You can call me Phantom. You guys gave me that nickname after all.”
Phantom.
The man who helped Elias last year in his revenge plan against the Berishas. The masked man who always seems to be one step ahead.
But I don’t have time to wonder what’s in it for him.
Stop the bounty and bloodshed first. Everything comes second.
I yank open the office door and step inside.
Cornelius stares at me, his mouth agape.
Reaching him in seconds, I slam the mystery drive onto his desk. “There were two drives. I only gave you one.”
“Really?” The old fox narrows his eyes. “How convenient.”
“I want the donor’s name for Celia,” I sign. Let him think everything I do is for my sister.
He smirks and punches the new drive into the computer. Another beep.
But this time, his expression completely changes.
Nostrils flaring, he clicks the mouse—once, twice.
Blood drains from his face. His eyes snap up to mine.
“Where did you get this?”
His hand trembles. It fucking trembles.
“I told you,” I sign, “two drives. I don’t want to start a war if I don’t need to.”
The grandfather clock chimes in the corner. More sounds of gunfire reach the room.
Pulling my shoulders back, I keep my gaze steady, face indifferent.
Then I lean in. “I want Celia’s donor.”
A slow smile curves his lips. “My dependable Ren. We trained you well.”
He rounds the desk and pulls me into a suffocating hug.
“Do it your way,” he whispers. “I’ll stop the bounty. For now. Don’t disappoint me.”
Something quakes inside me. I nod and escape the room, a high rushing through my veins.
Bounty’s off. Aria’s safe for now. And so is Celia.
My secret’s still safe. We have more time.
I take out my phone and pull up The Syndicate chat.
Ren Knight
It worked. Tell Tristan to call it off.
Elias immediately replies.
Elias Rook
Done. Lana and I will rendezvous with the others.
Sebastian Bishop
Celia’s fine. She’s playing the harp.
Within five minutes, the gunfire stops, and the chaos drains to a halt.
Aria.
I’m going to check on my sister, then find Aria and make sure she’s okay.
It doesn’t have to be over yet.
After all, she danced with me, knowing I was in the Triads.
I can have more dark nights with my Aria.
My phone rings. My feet stop when I see the name on the screen.
I quickly answer.
“Ren! Help!” A blood-curdling scream deafens my ears.
“Aria? Aria!” I sprint down the hallway, heart caught in a vise.