Page 27 of My Prince

This wasn’t Russ. Not even fucking close.

I stared at the woman sitting next to Yarder, feeling a mix of irritation and confusion. “You’re probably wondering where Russ is,” she said.

That was damn straight.

Yarder eyed the woman closely. “Yeah, I think we’re all wondering that.”

The woman cleared her throat and pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’m Fallon, Russ’ secretary. Well, at least I was his secretary until yesterday. About two hours after I took the phone call with one of you, I was fired.”

“Russ fired you?” Yarder asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

Fallon shook her head. “No, Max McGrave called me personally and let me know my services were no longer needed for Russ Finley.”

“Am I supposed to know who Max McGrave is?” Pirate asked, his tone dripping with skepticism.

Fallon looked at Pirate like he had two heads. “He’s the governor of Texas,” she clarified.

Pirate clicked his tongue. “Yup, yeah, now it sounds familiar.”

I shook my head, unable to believe what I was hearing. “So now the governor is in on this shit, too?”

Yarder sliced me with a look. “Shut it,” he growled.

Fallon glanced at Yarder. “You don’t need to shut it. I know everything that is going on.” She opened the file she had brought along. “Everything.”

“So, where is Russ?” Compass asked, cutting through the tension.

“I was hoping you guys would be able to help me figure that out.” She pulled out a paper and passed it to Yarder. “That came across Russ’ desk yesterday morning. I didn’t read it at the time because I try to keep my nose in my own business, but that was the only thing Russ left on his desk. Everything else was gone.”

Yarder looked over the paper, his brow furrowing as he tried to make sense of it.

“What is it?” Dice asked, curiosity piqued.

Yarder didn’t answer right away, his eyes scanning the document. I watched his expression shift from confusion to something darker, more serious.

“It’s a list of names,” Yarder finally said, his voice low. “Names we all know.”

A chill ran down my spine. “What kind of names?”

Yarder handed the paper to Compass, and then it made its way around the table. As I read through the list, I recognized them immediately—our allies and any people connected to us. This wasn’t just any list; it was a hit list.

“Shit,” I muttered. “This is bad.”

Fallon nodded. “Russ received that yesterday morning. By the afternoon, he was gone, and I was out of a job.”

“Who did he get it from?” Yarder asked.

Fallon shrugged. “I can’t tell you. When I saw it, I had two minutes before I was escorted out of the building with my things packed in a cardboard box.”

“Why would the governor fire you?” Compass asked, suspicion lacing his words.

“Because I know too much,” Fallon replied bluntly. “Russ and I have been working closely on this for months. We knew something big was coming, but we didn’t realize how high it went until now. We were both working on our exit strategies, hoping they would just let us go.”

“Why the hell did they decide to go after us?” Aero asked.

“You guys were an easy target,” Fallon explained. “I hate to admit it, but I was the one who heard about you guys and put your name in the hat.”

“Fuck you,” Smoke spat. “You’re the one to blame for all of this. You put a fucking target on our backs.”

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