Page 110 of Deadfall

Riggs stepped closer to me and the tension in the room grew heavy. “You do this, you risk the men. Whatever happens will be on you.”

I held my ground, but didn’t hesitate. “I accept that. We can’t risk losing him, Riggs.”

I refused to have this turn into a discussion where he could manipulate things his way, so I turned before he could answer, and headed off to rally the rest of the men.

Not even ten minutes later, the team was settled in the war room. Riggs was seated at the head of the table, scowling. Everyone looked at him expectantly, but he didn’t get up to speak like he usually did, instead he jerked his head at me.

“This is Syn’s op,” he said, roughly.

“Is it now,” Hangman murmured. “What’d you find?”

“Octavius.” The room stilled and I pulled up the surveillance footage on the monitors. “Lev discovered he’s in the city. It’s an ongoing situation, but I think we should move on him.”

“What happens if we spook him? We risk losing him for good,” Riggs repeated his earlier protest.

“We’ll place a tracker on his car,” I answered. I pressed a button, and another monitor lit up with the location of the drop. “Intel says he will be overseeing a weapons deal while he’s in town. These are the only roads in and out of where the transaction will take place—”

“You’re sure that’s where he’ll be?” Riggs interrupted.

“That’s what all of the surveillance says.”

“He has dozens of potential drop-off points in a four-hour radius of the city,” Riggs snapped. “And enough personnel to stage multiple dummy deals. He’s not stupid, Syn.”

“Which is why we have continuous surveillance on him,” I said firmly. I refused to be baited, plus it was good for the men to hear the holes, and how we planned to navigate them.

“Are you sure he’ll even be at the drop?” Riggs pressed.

I shrugged. “If it’s not the drop—who fucking cares? I want him, Riggs.” I planted my hands and leaned over the table. “It’s always been him—and Basilion and Albatron.” I looked around at the team. “Sure, taking down the organization and making a dent in the black market, and in human trafficking has been rewarding. The thousands of people we’ve saved, the drugs we’ve stopped, the weapon depots we’ve blown up—all of it meant something.” I jabbed my hand back at the screens behind me. “But that man is a kingpin. We’ve dismantled enough that if we take him out, there’s a good chance a huge part of the brothers’ business will fall with him. It will certainly weaken it.”

Riggs looked pissed off and skeptical, but I was pretty sure I had the others.

“The deal is set to go down tonight at twenty-one hundred,” I said. “This is how we’ll do it.”

I turned back to the monitors and outlined the rest of the op. I poked holes, assigned roles and at the end of the hour, the men had contributed and helped with the plan of execution. All of them except for Riggs, who had been suspiciously silent. I dismissed the men and they all left quickly to ready their gear. Except for Hangman and Jamal. Hangman looked over at Riggs who hadn't moved to leave.

“What’s up with you, boss?”

Riggs shrugged. “This is Syn’s deal.” I frowned at the obvious condescension in his tone.

Hangman picked up on it too. “You don’t think this will work?”

Riggs sighed dramatically. “I don’t think we have enough information.”

“That’s a lot of pretty good intel though,” Jamal said.

Riggs pursed his lips, his gaze slid to me and his eyes glittered darkly with contempt. I looked away. I didn’t need him to shake up my confidence right before we moved on Octavius. It was obvious that’s what he was trying to do. I gripped the back of a chair to keep my hands steady as my anger surged.

“I just think it’s pretty risky,” Riggs stood up and moved towards the door. “But, if Syn says it’s a go…guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

As soon as he was gone, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I found Hangman staring at me from across the table. We spent a long moment speaking without words before he nodded once and rapped the table with his knuckles.

“We’ll get him, Syn,” Hangman said.

He was at the door before I spoke.

“It’s time to end this, Hangman.”

Hangman glanced over his shoulder and nodded once. I knew he took my words exactly the way I’d meant them. This was it. Take down Octavius and I was gone. I’d leave. I knew Hangman would do whatever it took to make that happen.