Page 20 of Code Name: Admiral

Fear settled in the pit of my stomach when her brow furrowed and she got a faraway look in her eyes. I’d give anything to know what she was thinking.

“Alice?”

She turned away, and my arm dropped. The closeness I’d felt between us was long gone, leaving me chilled.

“There’s something I need to do.”

I nodded, sensing that whatever it was would be impossible for me to agree to. That was if she’d even tell me.

Her eyes met mine again, this time with a determination that made my blood run cold. “I need to go back to my place.”

“Alice—”

“Just to grab a few things,” she cut in. “Then I’ll go wherever you think is safe.”

The compromise in her words didn’t match the steel in her eyes. She was offering me what I wanted to hear, but planning something else entirely. I’d seen that look too many times not to recognize it.

“I’ll take you,” I said, making it clear this wasn’t up for discussion.

She hesitated, then nodded. “Can we go now?”

I studied her face, trying to read what lay beneath her carefully controlled expression. Whatever she was planning,she’d tell me when she was ready—or not at all. My job was to keep her alive long enough for either to happen.

“Let me make a few calls first,” I said, pulling out my phone. “Have the team make sure your building has been secured first.”

She didn’t argue, which only heightened my suspicion. Alice wouldn’t be so agreeable unless she had her own agenda. One that likely involved putting herself directly in harm’s way. Not on my watch.

As I reactivated my comms, I kept my eyes on her. Whatever she was planning, whatever she thought she needed to do by herself, she’d learn soon enough that I’d be right there beside her. Whether she liked it or not.

Before I could speak, I heard Tank’s voice. “Roger that,” he said, speaking to someone else before clearing his throat. “Boss?”

“Copy,” I responded.

“The coroner released Sarah’s body for cremation earlier today. Inurnment is scheduled in two days.”

“Who authorized this?” I asked. My true meaning, whether Alice was aware of what would become of her sister’s remains, wouldn’t be lost on Tank.

“Alice signed off on it earlier this morning.”

My eyes bored into hers, and she raised her chin as if she knew I was about to challenge her in some way. “Why weren’t we made aware?”

“That’s what this is,” Tank replied.

At that moment, as her defiant expression met my concerned stare, I knew with absolute certainty that Alice had already set her plan in motion.

9

ALICE

There were countless things I hadn’t shared with Pershing Kane. One, though, I doubted he would’ve immediately understood even if he discovered it before I had.

The message my sister had left was in a code she and I had developed when we were kids. It was simplistic—numbers for letters. When I saw the hurried scrawl on a small scrap of paper hidden beneath the lower cupboards in the kitchen, I grabbed it and stuck it in my pocket, waiting until I was in the hallway to read it. “2 11 13-21-18.” There was a long mark after the eight that may have been intended to be another dash, but that it spelled out “B, K, MUR” was enough for me to believe Sarah’s intention was to tell me Bobby Kane had murdered her.

Agent Kane was right to say that, in order to arrest the man, they needed substantial evidence. However, I didn’t require it to avenge her death. It was my first order of business. Then, one by one, I’d kill every person in the crime family in Bobby’s chain of command, starting with Alessandro Castellano, who my intel indicated was directly above him, and ending with Vincent, Alessandro’s brother and the organization’s don.

If I hadn’t been distracted by Agent Kane when trying to get out of my building alive, maybe instead of using thermite to block our exit route, I would’ve used enough to take out the entire structure, thus killing the thugs in it. But then, there would’ve been innocent victims, whose lives would’ve been lost along with them, something that would’ve prevented me from carrying out such a plan.

Escaping Pershing Kane would prove far more challenging than getting his compliance so far. During our frantic exit from my building, I’d glimpsed behind his carefully maintained facade—the man was a hardened operative who’d been deliberately downplaying his capabilities.

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