Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Drago
Words on the screens are starting to blur into one, the characters bleeding together as my eyes strain. It’s hard to concentrate after my text exchange with Lily. I can’t let her keep pushing against me, so I’m changing tactics.
Bringing out that fire inside of her. Pushing her buttons until she has to speak to me. I’m giving her time to cool off, and hopefully she will realize this was never a fucking fling. This was forever.
God, I never want to hear the damn word ‘fling’ again in my life.
“I can’t track anything my end,” Enzo grumbles, his voice echoing from the speaker beside me.
“No. You won’t. I set the basis for this system up years ago for her. Now she’s clearly got someone in to upgrade it. I’m close, though.”
My fingers keep moving even as my vision burns. I don’t stop. I can’t. I only get one shot at opening this message from Tatiana.
After that, I burn the entire system to the ground.
That’s why this is taking so long.
Lev is working on the passcode angle. I’m dismantling the skeleton beneath it.
“Why haven’t you gone after her yet?” I ask, not looking away from the screen.
This has intrigued me for a long time, and now, working alongside Enzo, I feel maybe he might trust me enough to tell me something.
“Taking her could hurt someone I love. Every move I make is carefully calculated. And Tatiana’s about to play her last hand,” his voice is sharp.
My jaw tightens.
There might actually be an end to this. A real one.
Lev’s name flashes across my screen, and I patch him into the call.
“I’ve got it, Drago,” he says in Russian.
“What is it?” I reply in English for Enzo.
“KISSMEAGAIN. All caps.”
I snort under my breath.
“What the fuck?” Enzo snaps.
“She’s just being a bitch, Enzo. She kissed me to seal the deal. Trust me, I want her gone as much as anyone else.”
I don’t justify myself. I don’t need to. I proved my loyalty when I risked everything for Charlotte and Isabella. When I bled for the Quinns. When I hunted the Preacher for months.
“She always had eyes for you, Drago,” Lev adds.
Useless commentary.
“Yeah. Not anymore.”
I enter the passcode.
“Enzo, you got eyes on my screen?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve got less than a minute to read this.”
I grab a pen and paper, breathe shallow, and hit enter.
Cyrillic floods the screen.
Of course it does.
I scan fast, breaking it apart instinctively. It isn’t an email. It’s a puzzle.
Coordinates.
A first name. Michael.
A last name. Stevenson.
A date two weeks out.
Peace talks.
A message. Leave invitation for Preacher.
And then, at the bottom, plain English.
I will send one of my men to the peace talks. He will collect my payment. If he doesn’t return… You know who I’ll be coming after, Drago.
My hand stills.
Lev can’t see my screen.
Good.
Because I know exactly what she’s threatening.
Lily.
The message deletes itself.
Before rage can take over, I finish the final string of code and corrupt the system from the inside out. Burn it. Salt the earth.
Fuck her.
I lean back hard in my chair, muscles screaming. “Thanks, Lev. You can go back to bed, old man.”
“Everything good?” he asks.
“It will be.”
He drops from the call. Enzo stays silent as I pull up the coordinates.
A bar in New York.
“I’ll get Frankie on the call, Drago. I’ll get clearance into New York.”
I rub at my temple. “You read Russian, Enzo?”
“Of course I fucking do.”
“So it looks like the plan is… I kill Michael in that bar. And I leave the Preacher an invitation for a peace talk.”
A beat.
“Hm. I don’t like the sound of this.”
Neither do I.
I crack my knuckles, already mapping every possible betrayal.
“The necklace is her weak spot, Enzo. The Preacher is just another tool to her. She doesn’t do loyalty.
She sacrifices anyone for her own gain. Morality isn’t a concept she recognizes.
” I tell him as I lean back. “She’ll push him toward the talks, knowing he’s walking into his death.
That’s her move. The Preacher dies, but she keeps the routes. The contacts. That’s what she wants.”
Tatiana is worse than him.
I once thought she was my friend. I once carried her bleeding body out of a kill zone. She jumped in front of a bullet for her sister, and in that moment, I really believed she had a heart.
I was fucking wrong.
I inhale slowly.
She played me. Like she plays everyone.
“If we don’t do this, she comes after Lily. And Enzo, I won’t let that happen. I will end Tatiana for that. If you want her alive for whatever game you’re playing, approve this plan. We end the Preacher, then you move fast before she gains more ground.”
“Where is the necklace?” He asks.
“In a safe in my panic room. Decadence is locked down. No one moves without approval. It’s as secure as it gets.”
“I’ll come and collect it.”
I shut the system down completely, watching the screen turn blank makes me smile.
“It doesn’t belong to me or you. It’s Lily’s. Until I know what’s on that drive, and that Lily is safe, it doesn’t leave my house.” The fact that I hold that necklace is the only reason she’s still breathing.
I don’t trust anyone else with that.
“If it has to go to Tatiana to keep Lily safe, it will. That’s not negotiable. I’ve got you the Preacher. I’ll kill this man in New York and leave the message. A deal is a deal. If she delivers, I deliver.”
This only works because Enzo is the one man Tatiana won’t challenge head-on. The one she hides from. Otherwise, if it were anywhere else, she would have started the war already to get it.
“That’s not to say I won’t copy everything on the drive first,” I tell him.
A pause.
“Fine. Get some sleep. I’ll get clearance with Frankie. You need backup?” He snaps.
“Keller. Grayson. Luca. Frankie. I’ll bring Conan, Charlotte, and the Twins.”
“I’ll send Romeo. I want eyes there,” he confirms.
“Tomorrow? We need to get this done faster than they think we will,” I ask.
I need this moving.
“Yes.”
“I’ll write the note. Decadence letterhead. Clear as fuck who it’s from. I’ll add my own touches. The Preacher will know it’s me. We need to figure out where to hold the talks. Neutral ground. Access routes. Advantage stays ours. We need all this on the invitation we’re leaving,” I tell him.
I’ve already buried too many men for him to doubt my intent.
“Leave the note to me, I’ll have Romeo take it to New York. I have a few connections we can use that will act as peace holders for us.”
We’re both smart enough not to say the quiet part out loud. No one mentions the plan to murder the Preacher the second he sets foot outside the peace talks. We don’t need to. We both know exactly how this ends.
And no doubt the Preacher will be planning the same thing. For me. For Declan. Probably for all of us.
Tatiana might be able to get him here, but that doesn’t mean she controls what he does once he arrives.
“I’ll fill the Quinn’s now. Then I’ll get a couple of hours of sleep.”
I already sent them home to their families. I can’t stand people hovering when I’m trying to work, watching my every move as if I might break. My job is to hack. Not theirs.
That part belongs to Enzo and me.
I learned it straight from Lev.
And if this goes wrong, it won’t be because I didn’t do my part.
The call cuts.
Tatiana’s system is ash. Which is more about showing her that she can’t keep using the tools I built her. That I really am her enemy now.
We’re closer now. Too close to stop.
I pour myself a whiskey and stare out over the woods, the moon cutting silver through the trees. It makes me think of Lily. I wonder if she put her crystals out tonight.
I almost check the monitors.
Almost.
But I don’t.
That habit ends here.
Because watching her isn’t enough anymore. Keeping her safe from a distance isn’t enough. I don’t want to learn her through screens. I want her beside me. Her fears. Her rituals. Her quiet moments. Standing under the moon together.
Keeping her safe isn’t enough anymore.
I want a life with her.
And I’ll burn the world down to make sure she gets one.