The shooter vanished across the frozen lake before Leander's men reached the shore.

He left one cartridge on the terrace.

A peppermint had been pressed into the hollow brass.

Leander stared at it in my palm.

"Explain," I said.

"I can't."

"Try."

"Not here."

He turned toward the guards.

I caught his sleeve. "You hired the Prague contract."

His face became very still.

That was answer enough.

I pushed him against the damaged piano.

Three guards raised weapons.

Leander lifted one hand. They lowered them.

"Why?" I asked.

"The man in Prague financed the Vipers."

"You could have hired anyone."

"I hired the best."

"Then doubled the fee and met me before I could disappear."

His jaw flexed.

"The contract was an exit," he said.

"From what?"

"A life you hated."

"You don't know what I hate."

"You leave clubs at sunrise and sit in train stations until the first commuters arrive. You rent apartments across from schools. You watch parents collect their children."

My grip tightened.

"You had me followed."

"I had you found."

Footsteps crossed the gallery. Mrs. Alvarez stopped at the doorway, took in the guns, the shattered glass, and my fist twisted in Leander's shirt.

"If you break him," she said, "do it away from the piano."

I released him.

"I'm leaving."

Leander's hand fell to his side. "All right."

No order. No locked door.

That made me angrier.

I packed in four minutes. At the foyer, I found the front gates open.

Leander waited beside them in shirtsleeves while snow collected on his shoulders.

"The motorcycle rider knew about the peppermint," I said.

"Yes."

"Who else knows?"

"No one."

"Wrong."

I walked past him.

The first bullet struck his right arm.

He spun into the gate.

I caught him before his knees hit the ground.

Three more shots tore through the stone. Guards returned fire. I dragged Leander behind the armored car and pressed my hand over the wound.

Blood ran between my fingers.

"Stay down," I said.

He looked at the suitcase beside me. "You were leaving."

"Your timing is manipulative."

"I'll apologize."

"Save your blood."

The shooter fled. I could hear the snowmobile cutting east.

Every instinct I owned screamed to chase.

Leander's fingers closed around my coat.

I stayed.

Mrs. Alvarez brought the medical kit. The bullet had passed cleanly through the outside of his bicep.

"Sit," I said.

"Rowan—"

"Now."

Leander sat on the foyer bench.

I cut away his sleeve. His skin had drained gray, yet his gaze never left my hands.

"Municipal records taught you field medicine?"

"Budget cuts. Everyone multitasks."

He lifted his left hand and brushed my hair back from my forehead.

The gesture almost made me press too hard.

"I'm fine," he said.

I tied the bandage. "Next time a gate shoots you, get the serial number."

His mouth shifted.

Adrian arrived twenty minutes later with two security teams and a face carved from disapproval.

"This house is compromised," he said. "Leander moves tonight."

"No," Leander answered.

"You were shot."

"I noticed."

Adrian pointed at me. "Since he arrived, we've had a museum attack and a sniper on private ground."

I rose.

Leander stepped between us despite the fresh bandage.

"Finish that sentence," he said.

Adrian's eyes went cold. "Sentiment makes men careless."

"Then you should be safe."

Celeste entered behind him and hid a smile.

I looked at the blood on my hands.

The rider had used the peppermint to make the attack personal. Adrian had reached the house too quickly. Leander had engineered Prague and studied my childhood.

Every road led through him.

That night, he slept in my bed after painkillers pulled him under. His uninjured arm lay across my waist as if his body had made a decision his mouth refused to announce.

I waited until his breathing slowed.

Then I slipped free and called Luca from the terrace.

"Tell me who's moving against Cross."

"Hello to you too."

"Luca."

Keys clicked. "The Vipers. Victor Kane wants the freight routes. Rumor says he has help inside Cross Holdings."

"Location?"

"No."

"I wasn't asking."

The keys stopped.

"You're going after Kane for your rich boyfriend?"

"Employer."

"Sure."

"I protect my income."

Luca sent the address.

I returned to the bedroom and dressed in black.

At the door, Leander spoke into the darkness.

"Don't."

I looked back.

His eyes remained closed.

"Go to sleep."

His hand moved across the empty mattress, searching.

I left before it found me.

The address Luca sent belonged to a jazz club Kane used for private meetings.

I arrived at eleven, three hours before the estate.

The club occupied a basement beneath an Italian restaurant. A brass band worked through something slow while men in tailored coats exchanged envelopes along the back wall.

I wore Leander's watch.

I had taken it from the bathroom counter while he slept. The face concealed a short-range transmitter. If his security team tracked it, they would follow the wrong signal after I left the watch beneath a table.

At least, that was the plan.

Celeste sat at the bar.

She wore red and looked bored.

"You're difficult to tail," she said.

I took the stool beside her. "You're bad at it."

"I wanted you to see me."

"Then you're bad at subtlety."

She ordered another drink and slid a photograph across the bar.

The mirrored motorcycle helmet rested on a workbench. Beside it lay Adrian's Cross Holdings access badge.

"Where?"

"His private garage."

"Why show me?"

"Leander wants to believe family can be managed."

"And you?"

"I believe rot spreads."

Onstage, the trumpet climbed and broke.

I studied her reflection in the mirror.

"You shot Kane."

"Not yet."

"Planning ahead?"

"Always."

She handed me a key card.

"Kane's estate has a service gate on the north road. Adrian gave him the new security codes yesterday."

"This could be a trap."

"It is absolutely a trap."

"You're honest for a Cross."

Her smile held no warmth. "I want my cousin alive. You appear to want the same thing, though you are performing an embarrassing dance around the fact."

I put the card in my pocket.

"Leander hired me."

"Leander has hired thousands of people. He does not sit outside their bedroom doors when they have nightmares."

The glass stopped halfway to my mouth.

Celeste watched the band.

"The first week you arrived," she said, "you woke screaming in Romanian. He slept in the corridor until sunrise."

I remembered opening my door and finding a peppermint on the floor.

"He should improve his hobbies."

"He had hobbies. Then he found you."

At the far table, a Viper lieutenant rose and moved toward the kitchen.

I followed.

He checked the alley, lit a cigarette, and noticed me when I was already close enough to take it from his mouth.

"Kane," I said.

"Never heard of him."

I broke his smallest finger.

He stared at it.

"That delay was insulting," I said.

"North estate. One thirty."

"Who gave him the Cross routes?"

"Some old guy."

"Name."

"Adrian."

"What is Acheron?"

His fear changed shape.

"Not a word you say twice."

"I've always been ambitious."

He lunged.

I put him into the brick wall and caught him before his skull struck.

Gentle retirement.

"Acheron buys what nobody reports missing," he gasped. "Cargo. Children. Names."

"Where?"

"Kane knows."

Sirens sounded two streets away.

The lieutenant smiled through blood. "Your rich man called the police."

The watch transmitter.

I returned to the club.

The table where I had left it stood empty.

Celeste had taken the watch.

My phone buzzed with a message from her.

He deserves one honest chance to stop you.

I shut off the phone and went to Kane's estate.

Leander found me anyway.