Page 2 of Fearless Sinner

We’ve never had a note left by the enemy before. Or a dead body.

“The bastard knew we were coming.” I speak against the silence. “He fucking knew we were coming.”

“We only spoke to Johny five minutes ago,” Virgo says in his thick Russian accent. His tone reflects his disbelief at the situation as he stares up at Johny—our spy—hanging before us. “He confirmed Lance was here.”

“It was already too late then.” Dante’s voice and accent are lighter than Virgo’s, but he confirms what I was already thinking.

I realize that we’re the joke. We never even had a hope.

“He set us up.” I breathe out a ragged sigh and scan the empty office. No piece of paper in sight, and the file drawers are open and empty. “There’s nothing in here. He cleaned it out before he left.”

Tamping down my rage, I step forward and rip the note off Johny’s body.

It says:

You’ll never find me, Cillian O’Ridian. Stop looking for me. You don’t want to see what happens if you make me mad,

Your friend, L.P.

At the bottom of the note is a smiley face with two Xs for the eyes.

I hand the note to Virgo because he’s closest.

He seethes when he reads it then hands it to Dante.

“This was my best lead,” Virgo scoffs, balling a tight fist at his side.

“There has to be something else we can do,” I say.

Virgo and Dante exchange glances. Since we were kids, the two of them have always been closer with each other than with me.

I used to think that it was because they’re both Russian. Their parents also knew each other as kids and share that cultural connection. But then I realized it's more than that. They think the same way and could almost be the same person.

The expressions on their faces tell me they think we’ve reached the end of the line.

We’re not ordinary people. Virgo is a world-class hacker and Dante is one of the most skilled assassins anyone knows. For any of us to accept defeat means we tried everything, moved heaven and earth, and searched every corner of hell.

But I’m the guy who believes you just have to do it all again.

Try everything again, move heaven and earth again, and check those fucking corners of hell again. Because we missed something.

“Don’t you fucking dare pull the plug on me. I’m not giving up.” I grit my teeth and glare at them. “Lance left a note. That means I have him all riled up. We just need to go back to the drawing board.”

Dante nods, but it’s with reluctance. “Alright. We’ll go back to the drawing board.”

Virgo nods, too, but at least there’s compassion in his eyes. He’s been more like that with me since he married my sister and reestablished the old alliance between our families.

“We’ll start with finding out how Lance knew about our spy,” he suggests, cracking his tattooed knuckles. “That might give us a lead.”

“Okay. Maybe we check the surveillance here to see who was around.”

“Good idea,” Dante says, keeping his gaze on me. “While we do that, I’ll get the men to look around the warehouse.”

“Thanks.” I lift my chin with determination. “I have to find this guy. I have to find him. After what he did to my family, I can’t stop looking for him.”

“We know.” Virgo rests a hand on my shoulder. “Come on.”

We leave the room.

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