Page 84 of The Thief
"I didn't. She chose him. She married him."
"Doesn't matter. He loved her, and now she's dead. He wants everyone responsible to pay."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone she ever cared about. Everyone who touched her life."
The implications hit like a sledgehammer. This isn't just about territory or power. It's about revenge for a dead woman who was never worth dying for.
"He's going to kill us all," Marcus whispers. "One by one, until there's nothing left of what Henry built."
Danny raises his knife again, but Marcus is already convulsing. His eyes roll back, foam appearing at the corners of his mouth. His body jerks once, twice, then goes still.
"Fuck," Danny breathes. "Heart attack."
I check his pulse. Nothing. Forty years of loyalty, ended in a basement interrogation room. Not the death Henry would have wanted for his oldest friend.
But it's the death Marcus earned.
"Come on," I say. "We need that phone."
We leave Marcus' body in the basement and head upstairs. Every second we waste is another second Trace has with Alastríona. It’s another second closer to losing the only good thing that's happened to me in years.
Time to find the bastard and end this war.
Permanently.
We find Marcus' phone in his office safe, exactly where he said it would be. The combination works, Henry's birthday, numbers that represent forty years of shared history, now turned to betrayal.
Danny examines the device, frowning at the screen. "It's encrypted. I can't crack this."
"Can anyone?"
"Melissa can. That woman can hack anything, she can crack any code. But it'll take time."
Time we don't have. Every minute that passes is another minute Trace has to hurt Alastríona, to carry out whatever twisted plan he's been nurturing.
"How long?" I ask.
"Few hours, maybe more. This isn't amateur encryption; it's professional grade."
Henry appears in the doorway. The attack, the betrayal, Marcus' death, it's all taken its toll.
"Any luck?" he asks.
"Melissa's going to work on it," Danny says. "But it's going to take time."
Henry nods, unsurprised. "Then we do this the old-fashioned way. Freddie."
"Yeah?"
"Go get my granddaughter. Bring her home."
"Henry, if Trace is still out there?—"
"Then we deal with him when he surfaces. But I want Alastríona here, where she belongs. Where we can protect her properly."
"And if it's a trap? If he's waiting for us to move her?"
