Page 18 of Brutal Reign

“You’re going to want to hear this.”

He pauses. At least that gets his attention.

Roman growls on the other end. There’s a rustle, and I hear him whisper, “It’s okay,milaya. Go back to sleep. I’ll be a minute.”

He’s talking to Liza Ivanova, his fiancée, probably why he’s not happy with my very early morning phone call. He was enjoying time in bed with the woman he loves. Well, too bad. This can’t wait.

A minute later, Roman’s irritated voice bleeds through the line. “Nice of you to call, finally, even if your timing sucks. Please tell me Hope King is dealt with.”

“That depends on your definition of ‘dealt with’.”

An aggravated groan comes over the line. “I think you know my definition,mudak.”

I rub a hand over my jaw, feel the stubble rasp against my palm. “I’m not killing her.”

Silence. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s not a threat to the Syndicate. I’ve had eyes on her day and night for two weeks. I’ve combed through her apartment and went through every fucking drawer. Our hackers found no trace of her online presence. She’s broke, stuck in a dead-end job, and living like a ghost.” The wind cuts across the river and into my bones, the blast of cold helping me wake up. “If she had contact with any Black Company loyalists, I’d know.”

Roman exhales slowly, clearly holding back his frustration. “Fine, maybe she’s not a threat right now. But that could change. She’ll get older, toughen up, and decide she wants payback. It’s a risk we can’t take.”

“That’s a real fucking leap, and you know it. She was raised in boarding schools. She went to Cambridge, for fuck’s sake. She was never part of her father’s world, wasn’t raised to take over. With all Lai King’s senior men dead, rebuilding the triad fromscratch would be next to impossible, even for someone with his blood.”

His voice lowers an octave. “I know how you feel about killing women, and I get it. Why don’t you come home, put her out of your head, and I’ll send someone else to do the job.”

Heat floods my veins the second the words leave his mouth. “No fucking way.”

He goes quiet for a second, then exhales. “So, what, are you suggesting? We let Lai King’s daughter walk free?”

I watch the dark water lap against the concrete edge. I need to throw him a bone and prove that I haven’t totally lost it.

“We’re going to keep tabs on her,” I explain. “I’ll inject her with a tracker. She won’t even know it’s there, and we get a living breadcrumb. Wherever she goes, we’ll know.”

“And how the fuck do you plan on doing that?”

“Leave the how up to me.”

A weary sigh escapes him. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”

The corners of my mouth twitch upward. “I’ve talked you into way crazier shit before. Trust me, this is one of my better ideas.”

He groans. “Not sure if Maxim will agree, but if it means you’ll get home sooner, I’ll live with it. I’m sick of running this fucking Syndicate on my own.”

“Untwist your panties. I’ll be home in a few days.”

He grunts his goodbye, and the line goes dead.

I sit there for a long while, the sun glinting off the river in thin golden streaks as the city slowly wakes up. It should be enough to know that she’ll get to live, move on with her life, however small her life is. But it’s not enough.

The need to see her again presses into my ribs. Just once more. One more time to breathe the same air, to hear her laugh, to see her eyes light up because she thinks I’m someone else. Someone I could never be.

After that, I’ll walk away and never look back.

This final time will have to be enough, even if I already know it won’t be.

CHAPTER

EIGHT