Page 88 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
I spent the rest of the day buried under damage control, scrubbing away the mess Victor left behind. By the time I lifted my eyes from the screen, my office had dipped into shadow. The city lights shimmered through the windows, and the glowing digits on my desk clock read eight-thirty-six p.m.
Charles stepped into my office some seconds later.
“How are things on your end?” I asked, still typing.
“We’ve locked down all compromised accounts and secured access to the dummy vendors Victor used. Legal’s prepping statements. It’s containable—for now.”
I nodded once. “Good work.”
He moved to my desk and set two folders down. “Here’s the operations summary and the other thing you asked for.”
I straightened slightly. “The DNA test results?”
He snorted. “You know hair follicle tests take a few weeks. Try to be patient, Luca.”
Right. I opened the second folder.
“This,” Charles continued, “is the intel on Blaze Stone.”
The name was enough to stir my wolf. Renewed anger pulsed through me.
“He’s a human. A very notorious one. Been in and out of prison for petty theft, armed assault, a few bar brawls gone bad. Nothing impressive, but he’s got a reputation for stirring up trouble among shifters in The Bronx. He’s also connected to a syndicate—they call themselves the Black Talon.”
The name scratched at something in my memory.
“The group is run by a man named Cassius Kane.” There it was.
I looked up sharply. “Cassius?”
Charles nodded grimly and dropped into the chair across from me. “You’ve probably heard the stories. Rogue wolf. Used to run with a Northern pack until he went off the rails. Now he runs an underground fight ring and loan racket—completely illegal, but lucrative.”
“How lucrative?”
“He’s got illegal money flowing through half the borough. Fights, bets, untraceable loans. The man’s carved out a whole empire in the dark.”
“And Leila?” I asked. “What has she got to do with any of this?”
Charles leaned forward. “Her father got in deep. Borrowed money trying to win it back at Cassius’ ring. Lost. Cassius kept extending the credit, piling on interest. By the time it was over, the debt was sitting at around two hundred grand.”
I swore under my breath.
“There’s a belief that debt passes through blood in the Black Talon. Even in death. Some say Leila’s father killed himself over it. Now Blaze—the collector—is coming after her.”
How long had she been drowning in this? How many nights had she gone to bed wondering if someone would come for her or for her son?
My jaw tightened. My fists clenched. Two hundred thousand dollars in debt and she never said a word. I shouldn’t have expected her to. Leila wielded a fierce belief that she could handle everything on her own. It made her strong, but she shouldn’t have had to face that alone.
“She’s been working to pay it off ever since,” Charles continued. “Picked up all kinds of jobs—wedding planning, temp gigs, even night shifts. Never missed a single deadline…until recently.”
I stilled. That caught my attention.
She’d been juggling multiple jobs, threading her life around a blood debt she didn’t even incur. And still, she stayed on top of it.
I glanced out the window, but my mind pulled inward. Five years ago, she was the same—relentless. Sometimes she was the last to leave the office. The one who double-checked every spreadsheet, every client file. I used to joke that she loved my company more than I did. She was always precise. Always on time.
So why would someone like that—someone who fights tooth and nail to meet a deadline on a ghost loan she never took—risk everything by stealing from me?
Why gamble a life she’d worked that hard to build?
