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CIEL

T here was too much to do and too little time.

The Alacrán Cartel still flooded into the city, testing boundaries with the Russians before retreating. They’d hit two more of Makarov’s business fronts, but then they’d disappeared from the cameras—exactly like Volpe did. Italian men had also hit him twice, so I knew that Volpe was still giving orders from somewhere.

The more Volpe’s hacker helped the Alacrán, the harder it was for me to find them, and I was getting so fucking tired of it.

The only good news was that Rafael Arboleda was in the city.

I’d gotten a snapshot of his face for half a second on a bridge camera and practically whooped with cheer. It was him .

I was so close to answers. I needed to know whether he was involved in my parents’ murders. It had kept me up late every night as I had combed through all the data I’d previously saved and anything I could remember from my childhood in Colombia. But so far, I’d had nothing new, nothing concrete, that could give me an idea of who he was or what he was doing.

I wished I could talk to my foster father about this. After my mother taught me the basics, he had taken over, and taught me everything else I knew about hacking. He might have been able to help me see whatever I was missing. But he’d been dead for years, and his son was nowhere to be found. After cutting ties with me when his father died, he’d disappeared.

Not that I really cared to look.

If I found Arboleda—killed him—I could finally put my parents to rest. I could, once and for all, prove to myself that I was good at my job. That I deserved a place among the Shadows.

With Leona.

Even so, I’d not gotten any other images of Arboleda through any other security cameras across the city. I still had no idea where the Alacrán were coming from, or where they were going.

And it was driving me fucking crazy.

I’d sent the Alacrán leader’s bridge cam picture to Makarov, in case the Russians caught a whiff of him anywhere, but right now we were playing a waiting game until he showed or one of us got hit elsewhere.

I had all my programs running. I had wired another server and added more processing power to my system to help with combing through the data. Hopefully, that would be enough. I needed to get ahead of Volpe and his hacker. If we were going to succeed at this, I could not let them beat me.

In the meantime, Wynn and Caspian were still waiting to hear back from Giulio. I’d sent the message to our underground communication channels, but I’d not heard any chatter in response. If we couldn’t get more people on our side, there was no way we could keep up with the Italians and the Alacrán.

On top of that, Leona had texted me that Chiara sent her a random date and time.

Staring at it on my computer had done nothing to give me any idea what it could mean.

But if Chiara sent it, it might have to do with Max. And if it had to do with Max, we needed to know what it was.

I couldn’t just sit in my room anymore, staring at my screens, and waiting for data to populate.

One of the cardinal things my foster father taught me about information security and hacking was that if the information didn’t come to you, you had to go get it.

I walked down the city street, collar popped over my neck, with a package tucked under one arm and a clipboard stuffed inside my jacket. I adjusted my hat over my hair and glanced at my reflection in a window. I definitely looked the part, besides the thin garrote wrapped around my wrist. To the untrained eye, it looked like a bracelet, but all I had to do was unravel it for it to become deadly.

I dodged pedestrian traffic, eyes scanning the city block on each side.

The date and time from the text could be anything. It could be nothing. It could be a trap.

But I couldn’t know unless I had more information.

I slowed down, glancing up at the hanging sign.

Vero Construction Inc.

It was time for an in-person visit.

As carefree as if I worked there every single day, I pulled open the door and waltzed inside. The lobby was large and inviting, and I could almost picture a tiny Leona running around the large couches of the seating area, dodging the legs of people waiting. Had she spent time here growing up? Or had her father kept her out of this business, too?

The receptionist at the desk greeted me, a wide smile on her pretty face. “Hello. Who’s it for?”

“Priya Singh,” I responded, passing the package tucked under my arm to her outstretched hand. Then I pulled out the clipboard from inside my jacket and handed it to her. “Sign, please. Can you send it up ASAP? I have a note that it’s an urgent delivery.”

“Of course!” Her tone was chipper. She signed quickly before handing the clipboard back to me. “I’ll have it sent up right away.”

I glanced down at her signature. Lana Nguyen. I smiled. “Lana. It’s a pretty name.”

“Oh!” She smiled back, cheeks coloring pink, as she started fiddling with something on her desk. “Thank you!”

It was a pretty name because it was precisely the name I needed.

She glanced up at me from behind her lashes. If I were Ryuji, I could flirt with her and get the information I needed that way. But I didn’t trust myself or my voice to get through that kind of social torture, nor did I want to.

All I wanted was to see those golden flecks sparkle in Leona’s eyes.

“Well, have a good one,” I replied.

The good news was that I didn’t need to flirt to find out her email address. A stack of business cards sat in a display case on top of the reception desk. I snagged hers and held it up with a smile. L. Nguyen. Perfect.

“Bye!” She giggled, winking as I tucked the business card into my pocket.

I gave a slight wave before I turned around and walked out of the building like I hadn’t just placed the perfect bug.

Back at the penthouse, I typed in Lana Nguyen’s username and password into my duplicate system of Vero Construction Inc’s internal server.

Once I had her email address, all I had to do was run a program to guess her password. It took three minutes before I cracked it. Then I was in.

People look down on receptionists. They think receptionists couldn’t possibly have access to sensitive company information. But what people don’t realize is that receptionists usually have surface-level access to almost everything . And most of the time, surface-level access was all I needed to hit the gold mine.

“Let’s see what everyone is up to,” I murmured as I pulled up Lana’s email alongside the company directory and calendar. Lana had access to company calendars, which meant I could see all public events and information—dates, times, locations—as well as private calendar blocks.

All I wanted to know was who was busy at the same date and time as Chiara’s message.

Within minutes, I had a list of possible answers, but I needed more.

I typed up an email from Lana Nguyen to Priya Singh, the executive assistant to whom I’d mailed my bug.

Hi Priya,

I just left you a thumb drive that one of the execs dropped off at the front desk. Can you plug it in and then email me back if it works? They got it from a client and are waiting to confirm! Thanks!

-Lana Nguyen

I sent the email and hoped that Priya Singh was not as careful of an executive assistant as she needed to be. A few minutes later, my screen auto-populated with Priya’s username and password.

I grinned.

My interface populated with a complete mirror of Priya’s computer, giving me control over it and everything on it—including the calendars of all the high-level executives who worked at Vero Construction Inc. These were the private calendars of the people who weren’t on the public company access list.

Including the calendar of Maximiliano Volpe.

An email from Priya pinged back into Lana’s inbox.

Lana,

I plugged it in and I’m not seeing anything? Do you need me to do anything?

-Priya

I typed up a quick reply, letting her know that Lana would tell the exec., and she could toss the drive for now, and then fired it off.

It was ridiculous, really. Why would an executive send Priya a thumb drive? Why couldn’t someone just plug it in at the reception desk?

But that was the beauty of internal phishing. The credibility of an internal email address surpassed common sense. Trust was their downfall.

By the time Vero Construction figured out how their system got hacked, it would be too late, so it didn’t really matter if these two talked in person and realized they hadn’t sent messages to each other.

I was in the system now, and they weren’t kicking me out.

I looked at Max Volpe’s calendar first.

And there, staring back at me, was a time block reserved for the exact date and time that Leona had sent. Chiara had wanted her to know about this event. But why?

The time block didn’t provide any other information besides being marked as busy on his calendar.

I drummed my fingers on the desk before sipping my energy drink.

We knew Max planned to go to this event, but I still had no idea what it was or why it mattered to us.

Progress, but not enough.

Quickly using Lana’s access to the company directory, I cross-referenced the same event across the calendars of the other high-level executives. Three others showed the same busy event. No other details.

I went back to Priya Singh’s personal calendar, hoping she’d have some extra visibility as an executive assistant, and practically jumped out of my seat when I saw the title on the same date and time. VCI Board Meeting.

This time, there was a location geo-tagged on the event. A restaurant in the Upper East Side.

“Hell yes!”

A board meeting. Now, why did Chiara text Leona the date and time of the Vero Construction Inc. board meeting?

Before I could think, the phone rang. I scrambled to answer it when I saw the name.

“Leona,” I said when the line connected. The last I’d heard from them was when Obi called for a location on Kofler. “Is everything all right?”

“Hey, Ciel.” She sounded exhausted.

“You okay, baby girl?” I asked, sinking back into my computer chair. Dios, her voice. I missed her voice. I missed everything about her. I couldn’t wait to see her, to bury my face against her neck, and breathe her in. Everything felt so tense without her here. I’d practically only spoken to the emptiness of my room.

“Yeah, just wanted to let you know that we’ll be here a few days longer.”

My heart sank. “Why? Trouble with Kofler? Do you need us?”

I knew for a fact that both Wynn and Cas would drop everything to get on a plane with me. If Leona needed us, we’d be there in a heartbeat.

“No, we just have a shit ton of work to handle,” she began. I frowned as she filled me in on what happened with Kofler and how they were trying to take over his organization with the help of one of his men.

“Can you get me a full dossier on Anton Felix?” she asked. “I just want to make sure he doesn’t have a history of being a backstabbing snake.”

My fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up everything I could find on the man. Austrian born and raised before coming to the States fifteen years ago. Arrested once in Phoenix on an unlicensed concealed weapons charge.

“Of course,” I replied. “I’ll email it over soon. How long do you think you’ll be? I can handle the flight change.”

“Obi is taking care of it,” she said. I could hear movement in the background. “Probably another few days.”

My eyes flew to Volpe’s calendar on my computer screen. The board meeting was about two weeks away. If she wanted to go to that, we’d need to prepare.

“Can you…let Wynn and Cas know, too?”

“Of course I can.” Caspian would be disappointed. He’d been sulking around the penthouse like a brooding bear. I wasn’t looking forward to telling him, and would probably stutter my way through it, but she clearly felt too drained to tell him herself.

“Did you find anything out about that text I sent you from Chiara?”

“Yeah, it looks like the date and time are for a board meeting at this fancy restaurant.”

She huffed a laugh. “Trattoria Luminosa?”

“That’s the one. You know it?”

“My father’s favorite. They went there for meetings all the time.” She hmmed and I could almost picture nose crinkling in thought. “Wow. I would have thought Max would have changed the meeting location.”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to moisten my contacts. “Why would Chiara let you know about that?”

“I have no idea. Maybe she’s trying to help me.” She paused after a heavy sigh. “Ciel, do you think she’s in danger? Should we be trying to save her?”

My leg bounced. “I think if she were, she’d be asking for help. Instead, it’s like she’s feeding you information.”

“Like she’s helping us from the inside?”

“It’s possible.” We still didn’t know why Chiara agreed to go with Max, or what he was really planning to use her for besides securing the Tommaso Family assets. What benefit did Chiara have for not trying to run away? Why would she try to push her father in front of Ryuji’s bullet if she didn’t want to be with Max?

Would she risk her life to help Leona win this war?

“We’ll figure it out. We have to.” Leona groaned before taking a deep breath. “So, the board meeting is a few weeks away. Guess I better crash the party.”

I didn’t like the idea of her being exposed so close to Max, but we could plan for it. We could prepare. “I’ll start working with the guys to make a plan.”

“Cas won’t like the idea of me going to that.”

“No, he won’t.” I chuckled. “Neither will Wynn. They’re both out of their minds right now. I bet they try to sequester you in the penthouse as soon as you return.”

“Great.” She sighed. “I have to deal with them, and then Obi and Ryuji.”

I frowned. “What’s up with Obi and Ryuji?”

“Nothing…just…can you maybe keep the board meeting between us for now?”

If it was just for now, of course I could. With the sound of her voice, and with how much I missed her and just wanted her home, I couldn’t refuse her anything right now.

Plus, if all the other guys were only stressing her out, I was not going to add to that. I’d already pushed her away once. I’d been lucky she came back to me. I wasn’t about to risk that again.

“Sure, baby girl.” In the meantime, I’d pull as much public information about that restaurant as possible. I’d have the full blueprints of the building, their permit records, and anything I could find that could give us the information advantage. “We can tell them when you get back.”

We might not be able to kill Volpe at a public restaurant, and honestly, I wasn’t sure we should try, but we could make sure Leona blew into that meeting, ready to kick ass, and take names. She could demand a spot on the board and start attempting to take control of the company. We could fray Volpe’s control even further. He was bound to make mistakes.

“I miss you, Ciel,” she breathed.

“I miss you, too, baby girl.” Ryuji shouted something in the background, followed by Obi’s deep rumble. “Need anything else?”

“I just need you three to take care of yourselves, okay?”

“Promise.”

“How is everything there?”

I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “Fine. Don’t worry. We’ll fill you in when you get home.”

“Home,” she said, voice slightly amused. “Home is where the heart is.”

“Then I guess my home is in LA right now.” The space between us stretched even further, as she didn’t respond. Shit. Was that too far? Was she not feeling the same longing we were? I pushed forward, pretending I didn’t just say something so embarrassing. “Call me if you need anything. I’ll send you the stuff on Felix ASAP.”

“Ciel—”

“It’s all right, Leona,” I interrupted her. My free hand curled into a fist. She didn’t need to coddle me. I needed to stay focused on the tasks at hand. “Get some rest and tell Ryuji to stop being a dick. He’s always a dick, so it’s a fair assumption.”

She laughed softly. “Okay, Ciel. Get some sleep, too. You have to stop running yourself so ragged.”

“Talk to you later.”

I hung up the phone and then practically slammed my head on my computer desk.

Fuck. Why did I say that? Why couldn’t I play this cool and collected like Ryuji did? Or confident like Wynn? My throat didn’t have the same issues around her anymore, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified of fucking this up.

Work.

I had to get back to work.

Alacrán. Chiara. Board meeting. Max.