Page 78 of The Devil's Thorn
And those two?
They’d follow her to war.
Which means… I need to knowexactlywho she is.
The door opens behind me, but I don’t turn. Nikolai steps inside, his movements clipped, his energy sharper than usual.
“I’ve got nothing.”
I finally glance back. He tosses a thin folder onto the bar, the weight of it almost laughable in itsemptiness.
“No real records. No background under the alias she gave. I ran facial recognition across every Bratva and Italian registry I have access to. No hits.”
“Nothing?”
He hesitates.
“She’s Italian.”
I raise an eyebrow. “That all you’ve got?”
“That, and she bleeds like one of us.”
He sounds almost annoyed by it.
I pick up the folder, thumbing through the sparse pages. Bank accounts with dead-end trails. Apartment under a false name. No social media. No official history before the age of sixteen.
Too clean.
“You think she’s a part of some criminal organization” I murmur.
Nikolai shrugs. “If she is, someone went to a lot of trouble to erase her.”
I close the file and set it aside.
“Then keep digging.”
“And if I still find nothing?”
I don’t answer right away. Because I already know the truth.
She’s hiding somethingbig.And the more invisible someone is, the more dangerous they tend to be.
Nikolai shifts.
“You made a mistake.”
My eyes flick to him. “Did I?”
“You should’ve ended it tonight. Her. Them. The second we had control.”
“I never lost control.”
“No?” He takes a step closer, jaw tight. “Then why is it that three unknowns just fought their way through your penthouse, manipulated their way into your operations,liedstraight to your face… and instead of wiping them off the map, you gave them a job?”
I don’t answer. Not yet.
Because I want to hear it all.
