Page 61 of Claimed By the Boss

The city sounds so much louder after the hush of our tropical vacation. I let out a long breath and take in the skyline, all steel and angles, stark after palm trees and ocean. The air presses heavier, grittier.

I glance at Lyra as the car pulls to a stop in front of her apartment. Her hand is in mine, fingers soft and still warm. She’s been quiet the entire ride. I don’t think it’s exhaustion, it must be something else. Her walls are going back up. Maybe she’s thinking about all the stress she left behind and all the reasons she shouldn’t be with me before.

I lean over and kiss her, slow and deep, one hand cupping her cheek. Her lips part for me, and I take my time tasting her, memorizing her again now that we’re back in this other life. I feel her soften as she leans into me. Her fingers curl around the lapel of my jacket like she doesn’t want to let go.

Neither do I, but I have to.

There’s work waiting for me across town. This vacation was a distraction, but the clock is ticking on Rurik, and I have plansto make. I kiss her again before I pull back, my forehead resting against hers.

“I’ll call you tonight,” I murmur.

She nods but worry flickers behind her eyes. She tries to hide it, she’s good at that. I’m learning how to read her. I press one more kiss to the corner of her mouth, then squeeze her hand before she steps out of the car and disappears into the building. Only when the door clicks shut do I finally exhale and turn to my driver.

“Let’s go,” I say.

Alek has our headquarters set up in an old brick building off Canal, tucked between two properties we’ve owned for decades. From the outside, it looks abandoned, one of a hundred faceless structures. It’s the perfect place to plan our attack.

My men are waiting for me inside. Alek is already at the head of the table, arms crossed, posture tense. Mikhail and two others stand at the floor-to-ceiling screen on the far wall, studying the latest location feeds.

They straighten as I walk in, every one of them silent.

Alek nods. “You’re back.”

“Brief me.”

He gestures toward the screen, and one of the others starts cycling through images: drone stills, heat signatures, satellite footage.

“Rurik moved early,” Vadik says. “He’s not scheduled to arrive until Friday, but we picked up movement from his secondcrew yesterday. Confirmed rendezvous point is the Redcliff warehouse, same as in the intercepted recording.”

“Why the change?”

“Paranoia, probably. Or he caught wind of something. Either way, he’s going early, and we’re ready.”

I cross my arms and study the photos. The warehouse is surrounded by forest on three sides and a service road on the fourth. Two entry points. One escape route. We’ve already mapped every detail, but I go over it again anyway.

“What’s our setup?”

“We have three men posted in the surrounding brush. Two snipers on the hill. One inside, posing as a buyer. Once Rurik arrives, we wait until he steps out of the vehicle. We confirm his identity. Then we take the shot.”

“And if he doesn’t get out?”

“We breach it. Fast and clean.”

I consider this. “No survivors?”

Alek nods. “We’ve accounted for his security detail, driver, and any backup vehicles. If this works, Rurik will go down before he even has a chance to run.”

I glance at the terminal in the corner of the room, the small blinking light confirming that Lyra’s anti-jamming program is still running. Alek assures me it’s been flawless.

“We wouldn’t have caught Rurik’s change of plans without it,” he says. “We wouldn’t have intercepted the signal, located the crew, or mapped the shift. Her code made this possible.”

Without Lyra’s code, I wouldn’t be this close to finally avenging my father’s death.

“Good,” I say. “We move when he does. Nothing changes unless I say so.”

“Yes, boss,” Alek says, and the others echo him.

They begin to disperse, murmuring among themselves, already prepping for the mission. I stay behind, watching the screen as it returns to standby.