Page 52 of No Longer Mine

I quirked a brow. “Legitimate or under the table?”

Benson smirked. “What do you think?”

I turned back to Tony, gripping his jaw and forcing his head up so he had no choice but to look at me. His pupils were blown wide with fear, sweat dripping down his temple.

“You know, Tony,” I mused, my voice soft, dangerous, “I don’t want to kill you.”

His lips parted, hope flickering in his eyes.

“But I will.” I squeezed his jaw tighter. “Unless you start talking.”

Tony shuddered, his body shaking under my touch. “Cavalier—he’s not just a name,” he stammered. “He’s a fucking ghost. No one meets him directly. He operates through middlemen, through shell corporations, through money that disappears the second it enters the books.”

Alexei clicked his tongue. “Sounds like a real pain in the ass.”

Tony swallowed hard. “He’s making moves, Cristof. Big ones. He’s buying up territory—clubs, warehouses, shipping routes. He’s positioning himself to take over the entire underground market. Drugs, weapons, imports. All of it.”

I stilled. “And you’re working for him?”

Tony hesitated.

I let go of his jaw and straightened, my patience razor-thin. “Wrong answer, Tony.”

“I don’t work for him,” he rushed out, shaking his head. “I work for someone who works for him. I swear, I don’t even know who the fuck he really is.”

Benson’s fingers danced over his keyboard. “If he’s moving this much money, there’s got to be a trail. Somewhere.”

Tony scoffed. “You think you can track him? People have tried, Cristof. They disappear.”

I grinned. “Cute. You think that scares me?”

His throat bobbed.

I leaned in again, lowering my voice to something dark, something that slithered beneath his skin like a promise of violence. “You should be more scared of me, Tony. Because, unlike your little ghost, I’m real. And I don’t just make people disappear. I rip their dicks off and then release them back into the wild. Do you think you could live without your dick?”

Alexei’s eyes widened. “You’re a sick fuck.”

I shrugged. I’d never done, it but it sounded like good fun. “I have my talents.”

Every man in the room, besides me, visibly shuddered.

Tony exhaled shakily. “Look, I—I don’t know much. I just pass along information. I collect debts, I keep the shipments moving, I?—”

“Where?” I cut him off, my tone sharp. “Where are the shipments coming from?”

He pressed his lips tightly together, and Alexei slammed the knife into my hands. Tony shook his head and closed his eyes as he began praying under his breath. I let out a sigh. “Prayers won’t help you here, Tony. Answer the damn question.”

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, as if that would somehow make this all go away. “The docks,” he finally muttered. “Pier 23. Late-night shipments. Unmarked containers. I—I don’t know what’s inside them. I don’t ask.”

I exchanged a look with Alexei. Pier 23.

That was our dock. Our territory.

So Cavalier wasn’t just making moves. He was making moves on us.

I exhaled through my nose, shaking out my hands. The rage simmering under my skin was like an old friend— comfortable and familiar.

Tony’s wide, panicked eyes darted between us. “I told you what I know,” he pleaded. “You said I’d get to live.”