Page 102 of Vicious Knight

Listening to Ivy’s music reminds me of days gone by and memories of the past with my family. Our world was always dark, but our home had love.

That’s how it started, with love, and how I remember it until everything ended in disaster.

I know my father did something to cause it, and I wish I knew what that something was. I guess I take after him in those ways because no one knows my secrets.

The girl I’m watching right now is another secret of mine. One that’s fast becoming something else.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out, believing it’s a text from Caspian or Lucian, but it’s not. It’s a notification.

Last year when I was trying to find dirt on my uncle I set up alerts on all the phone numbers linked to him.

He uses a lot of burners and what we call ghost lines. Those are numbers that are untraceable. Unless the person tracking you is me.

The notification is coming from one of those numbers. It’s a text.

I open the message and click on the link, hacking into his phone within nanoseconds.

The message says:

I got the stuff ordered for you and bypassed the registration. It will take three months to create but after that you’re good to go.

Aleksander messages back instantly:

Well done, Claudio, I’ll send payment right away.

I keep my tracker on his phone and witness five million dollars being wired to an offshore account. Because it’s quicker, I then track where the phone message came from to find out which Claudio my uncle is speaking to.

My search comes up with none other than Claudio Hernandez, a black-market dealer who is banned from association with the Knights.

This again, Uncle.

This isn’t the first time I’ve found him liaising with people he’s not supposed to have any relations with. It was only last year that I found out he was trying to get a seat on the Camorra’s high council.

The Camorra is the only group that the Knights don’t ally themselves with. That’s because of a long-standing feud, an unresolved murder we blame them for, and the clash of power.

I used the intel I found on Aleksander to help Caspian. Aleksander never knew it was me who found it because Caspian kept my name out of it, but I’m sure he had his suspicions. He would have known that Caspian wouldn’t have been able to find out that sort of dirt without the help of someone like me.

Now there’s this. Fresh dirt.

This text is good enough shit to get Aleksander in trouble, but I don’t want to simply get him in trouble. I want him gone.

So I need the whole story.

What did he order from Claudio?

What’s going to take three months to create?

What is worth five million dollars?

A wicked smile stretches across my face and Ivy’s music drops to her signature death notes, perfectly in tandem with my thoughts.

Finally, I have something to work with that will enable me to play my uncle’s game.

Am I crazy to think that if I win I might still get to keep the girl?

My malen'kiy olen'.

Chapter 23

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