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The photo wasn’t recent, but the men in it weren’t much changed from the corpses I’d left behind. They were sitting in a room together, heads dipped as they conversed. What was interesting was the camera angle—it peered through a gap.
The subjects hadn’t known they were being photographed.
“Think about it, Eddie,” I mused out loud as I studied the stranger’s face. “You can die peacefully or you can keep quiet and I can make you regret the day your mother gave birth to you.”
Something mumbled spilled from his lips. I grabbed a hold of him and stopped the pendulum swing of his body, then I ducked and popped two fingers into the holes I’d made in the cling wrap that fed air into his nose. Kinda gross, but torture was messy. I needed more than a couple of Tide PODS to keep my whiteswhitethat was for fucking sure.
As he lost those streams of oxygen, I felt his panic increase before I retreated, tugging the clingfilm with it.
That was when I knew I’d done my job right—the panic didn’t abate. Itsurged.
“You try to scream or alert a guard, you’ll do more than choke on your vomit,” I warned as I carefully tugged on the gag I’d stuffed in his mouth.
He gulped down air the moment he could, then he pricked my hope like it was a balloon. Much like the others had, he rasped, “In our Brothers we trust.”
My jaw clenched as I accepted what I had to do tonight.
It sure as hell wouldn’t be pretty…
“If you want to play it that way, Your Highness, then play we will, but there’ll be no winners in this game. That’s a promise.”
* * *
An hour later,a bare fifteen minutes before the guard was due to patrol this section of the palace, Prince Eddie finally gave me what I’d been seeking.
Anton Kuznetsov.
At last,I had a fucking name.
Now, I just had to figure out how the hell I knew him.
3
CONOR
FURIOUS ANGELS - ROB DOUGAN
WINTER - PRESENT DAY
“Conor.”
“You’re the only person who says my name that way, Riggs. Did you know that? I don’t need Caller ID for you.”
“You say the sweetest things,” she cooed in my ear, making my lips twitch.
“I work hard to be charming,” I agreed, scratching my temple where there was an ever-present itch since the fist that had collided with my face a few days earlier had cut skin.
“I remember that conversation.”
Agitated, I crossed my arms over my chest. “The one where you told me that people wouldn’t like me if I remained a robot?”
“That’s the one. It’s a life lesson you should have learned before you reached seventeen. With your family, I’m surprised they didn’t point it out sooner.”
My brow puckered, pulling on the dissolvable stitches on my forehead. “Did you call just to insult me? Because I have enough on my plate as it is.”
Her chuckle was infectious enough that it made the corners of my lips tug into a smile. Riggs,whenthe urge struck, always laughed from her belly. I wasn’t sure she knew any other way.
“I have a job for you,” she said lightly once she’d finished finding amusement at my expense.
