Page 89 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
And for the first time in years, a question I’d buried deep began to claw its way to the surface: What if I was wrong?
What if everything I believed about that night—about her—was twisted? What if I let rage blind me? What if I punished the one person who never deserved it?
I snapped the folder shut. This ended tonight.
“Did you get Cassius’ location?”
Charles hesitated. “Yeah. But Luca—this guy doesn’t play fair. You walk into his ring, you better be ready to draw blood.”
I stood, already grabbing my coat.
“Then I’ll make sure mine isn’t the first spilled.”
Chapter Twenty
Luca’s POV
I pulledover at the edge of a dim alley, just across from what was supposed to be Black Talon’s Syndicate headquarters.
The building was a crumbling three-story with graffiti-scarred walls, boarded-up windows, and a rusting fire escape that looked like it would collapse under a stiff breeze. It didn’t look like much. In fact, it looked abandoned. But that was the point. When you’re running illegal operations like Black Talon’s, the last thing you want is attention.
I slipped on my gloves—just in case I needed to get my hands dirty. Literally. I wouldn't want to bruise my knuckles on one of those lowlife bastards. Not when I had another option. A better one. The gloves were Plan B.
And my Plan A never failed.
I pulled out my phone and tapped the contact. He picked up on the first ring.
“If you’re calling me this late, it must be serious,” Grant said, his voice muffled by chewing.
The sound grated on my nerves. Then again, Grant always irritatedme. We’d barely met in person, and that was intentional. But even I had to admit, he was the best tech guy in the business. He’d hacked into my competitors’ servers, unmasked shell corporations, and traced money trails from Manhattan to Mauritius without leaving a footprint. Five years of clean hits. No leaks. No failures. And I paid him enough that if he wanted to disappear to a private island in Fiji, he could.
“It’s barely nine-thirty,” I said. “You’ll live.”
“What do you need?”
“I need a complete breach into Black Talon’s network. Deep access. Everything Cassius Kane has buried, bring it to the surface. Accounts. Supplier lists. Tunnel routes.”
There was a pause. I could hear him stop chewing.
“Damn, Luca. That’s not just corporate espionage, that’s a suicide mission. Black Talon’s a high-risk syndicate. If they trace me, I’m a dead man.”
“And if you don’t do what I’m asking, you’re a dead man anyway. So make your choice.”
There was a beat of silence. Then a sigh. “Why do you need to breach their system, anyway?”
“Your job isn’t to ask why,” I said, my tone flat. “It’s to do exactly what I tell you.”
He muttered something under his breath. It was too low to catch, but I heard the familiar clack of his keyboard keys. He was already working.
“All right, what are you after? Blood or leverage?”
“Both.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “What did Kane do—threaten your girlfriend or something?”
“Something like that.”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel, the leather groaning under the pressure. The mere thought that Cassius fucking Kane had spent the better part of a year stalking and harassing Leila made my blood run hot. My wolf paced, snarling, demanding I let it loose.
