31. Nik

CHAPTER 31

Nik

The moment Katy comes into view, time seems to slow down. I push Brie behind me, shielding her with my body as I level my weapon at the Solara cleaning manager.

"Well, isn't this a party," Katy drawls, her lips curving into a smile that does nothing to warm her eyes. But before I even need to make a move, Lyssa and Scarlett spring into action. They're a blur of coordinated movement, converging on Katy from different angles.

But Katy's not going down without a fight.

The air explodes with gunfire again. I duck, pulling Brie down to the ground with me as bullets whiz overhead, embedding themselves in the walls with dull thuds that rain down chunks of plaster. "Stay low," I hiss at her, although she's flat on the floor as it is.

I spot an opening and take it, firing off two quick shots at Katy. She dives behind an overturned sofa, my bullets missing her by inches.

Damn it, she's good.

But Lyssa and Scarlett are equally formidable. They move with a synchronicity I've never seen before. Scarlett provides cover fire while Lyssa advances, then they switch roles seamlessly. But for a minute or two, Katy matches them move for move. She uses the house's layout to her advantage, ducking behind pillars and using doorways as cover. Each time I think she's cornered, she slips away like smoke.

But at least she's not able to get close to Brie.

There's a lull in the shooting, and for a moment I can hear my own ragged breathing, feel the thundering of my heart against my ribs. Then I hear the smallest of creaks.

I spin toward the sound, my finger tightening on the trigger. Katy emerges from the shadows, her gun trained on Brie. Our eyes lock, and I take a step to put myself between Katy's gun and Brie's heart.

But for the first time, maybe because she's so close to her goal, Katy has overstepped. In focusing on Brie, she left herself exposed. Lyssa and Scarlett emerge from their own positions, their weapons trained on Katy. She's surrounded, outgunned, with nowhere left to run.

The standoff feels like it lasts an eternity, though it's probably only seconds. I can see the moment Katy realizes she's done. She kneels to put down her gun, still smiling at me.

My trigger finger tightens.

"Don't kill her!" Scarlett shouts.

For fuck's sake. Now I'm supposed to do the Syndicate's work for them? But I allow Lyssa and Scarlett to advance.

Katy looks from one to the other of them as Lyssa restrains her hands behind her back with zip ties and Scarlett kicks her gun away, then searches her for more weapons, discarding them as she finds them. "Did she send you here?" Katy asks eagerly. "Do you know where she is? Comms went dark."

"If you're talking about Grandmother, she didn't send us," Lyssa says. "But I'm glad you're in a talkative mood, because it's time for some answers."

But then we hear it.

Sirens.

"We need to get her out of here," Lyssa says to Scarlett, and then she looks at me and Brie. "How about you two. Interested?"

"I know where we can go," Brie says, and I've never heard her sound so fierce. "There's a place out in the desert where the Colombos like to bury their problems."

"Well, fuck me," Lyssa says with amusement, grinning at Brie. "You'd been an alright candidate for the Syndicate, too, along with your girlfriend. Lead the way."

Brie doesn't say anything about Lyssa calling me her girlfriend. All she does is look at me and say, "We'd better take Holden, too."

The desert night is cold as we gather around Katy, on her knees in the middle of our small circle. Brie insisted that Holden wait in the car, and he was only too happy to do so. I wanted to tell Brie to do the same, but…

She's changed. Sometime in the last few hours she seems to have found a new version of herself. I used to hate that she had so many faces, so many masks, but I find myself almost excited to see this new side to her.

She's fascinating in all her iterations.

But even though I can sense a new toughness about her, I stand with my body angled slightly to shield her if needed. She's still under my care, after all. And opposite us, Lyssa and Scarlett stare down at Katy.

Katy's eyes dart between us all, but they keep returning to Lyssa. There's a strange mix of fear and…admiration? in her gaze. When she speaks, her voice carries a hint of awe.

"You're Lyssa, aren't you? The Wolf?" Her voice trembles slightly. "You were a legend when I was training. We all wanted to be you—or kill you."

Lyssa just snorts. "Yeah? Well, better luck next time."

"Grandmother would have been so pleased with me," she says almost wistfully. "She hasn't been in contact for a while. I thought maybe I'd done something?—"

"Grandmother's dead," Lyssa says bluntly.

Katy stares at her. "No."

"Yes."

" No ," she says again, shaking her head in denial. "You're lying. Grandmother can't be dead."

"It's true," Scarlett confirms, her voice gentler than Lyssa's. "You know it is. You've reached out to her and had no response. You know there's only one reason that would happen."

The effect is immediate. Katy's face crumples, her bravado vanishing in an instant, and she slumps in her restraints, looking small and lost. "How did she die?" she asks, her voice barely audible.

Lyssa steps closer, her voice cold. "I killed her." She pauses, letting that sink in. "And now you're going to die, too. But how painful that death is…well, that's up to you."

I glance at Brie, wondering if this will be too much for her. But her beautiful face is still and unreadable.

"We have some questions," Scarlett says. "If you answer them, we'll grant you a merciful death."

"And if you don't, you'll die screaming," Brie says matter-of-factly. "So let's begin. Did you kill my husband, Salvatore Colombo?"

I'm blinking in surprise at Brie, but Katy says nothing.

Lyssa steps forward and grabs a handful of the short hair, yanking on it roughly. "If you know me," she says, "then you know the kind of pain I can inflict. Do you really want to go through all that for a woman who's already dead? Grandmother had a list of names. Salvatore Colombo. Juno Bianchi. Hadria Imperioli—should I go on?"

Katy gives a tiny half-smile. "I know the list you mean."

"Is it a hit list?"

A snort of laughter escapes Katy, catching us all off guard. "A hit list? Of course not. It was a problem list. The people she had the most difficulty embedding an operative with."

I feel Brie stiffen beside me, her breath catching. I resist the urge to reach for her hand, keeping my focus on Katy. "What do you mean?" I press.

"Grandmother likes having insurance. She sent us out wherever she could. But that list…they were the tough nuts to crack, so to speak. I was initially sent to seduce Terry Colombo, but he was…resistant to my charms." She shifts her gaze to Brie. "Guess he preferred the bimbo type."

I raise a hand to slap the hell out of her, but Brie tugs it down. "Don't bother," she says, sounding amused. "Let her think what she wants. She'll be dead soon enough."

But the death threats don't seem to have much effect on Katy. Lyssa and Scarlett have filled us in on a few of the things this Grandmother has done over the years, and I wondered privately if Eva knew of her.

Had traded with her.

Because it wouldn't sit right with me if she had. This Grandmother—her tactics, her training through abuse—it disgusted me to hear about it. I hope it would disgust Eva Novak just as much.

"So that was your mission?" Scarlett asks, trying a softer tone. "Get close to the Don. But it didn't work."

"No." Katy's smile fades. "Plan B was to get close to Brie Colombo, find a way in through her. We found her house here at Solara, and I was embedded as a staff member for years, hoping she'd bring her husband out to the house, or give me a clue about how to get closer to the man himself."

"You've been watching me for years?" Brie sounds as shocked as I feel.

Katy's laugh is hollow this time. "Grandmother is patient. And so am I." Her eyes narrow as she looks back at Lyssa. "Maybe that's why you were such a failure for her, Wolf. You lacked that patience."

Lyssa just grins. "I was patient enough to kill her, in the end."

Brie speaks up again. "Did you try to assassinate me in Las Vegas? In the alleyway and at the Golden Sands casino?"

Katy's blank stare is answer enough, but she shakes her head for good measure. "My orders were to watch you, not kill you."

The pieces aren't fitting together. If Katy wasn't behind the assassination attempts, then who was? And—"If that's true," I ask, "what the hell made you shoot a goddamn rocket launcher at Brie's living room tonight?"

"I told you. When I recognized Lyssa, I thought…I thought I might be able to kill her. Gain Grandmother's favor."

Lyssa's laugh is sharp and humorless. She turns to Brie. "Any more questions?"

Brie's voice is cold, controlled. "Just one. And I want an answer this time. Did you kill Don Colombo?"

Katy shrugs. "No." The simplicity of her answer, the lack of hesitation, tells me she's speaking the truth.

But if Katy didn't kill Don Colombo, and she wasn't behind the attempts on Brie's life, then we're back to square one. The real danger is still out there, and we're no closer to finding them.

Scarlett breaks the tense silence. "So there are more like you? Hanging around the fringes of other organizations, like the Bianchi Family?"

"You should know as well as I do—Grandmother's operatives work alone for the most part. She keeps her cards close to her chest." She looks down and adds bitterly, "Kept. She kept them close to her chest."

Lyssa looks at Scarlett with meaning. "We need to alert everyone on that list about this, ASAP." She turns to Brie. "We have no more use for her. Do you?"

Brie's voice is ice. "I do not. You're welcome to use the grounds here for disposal, as I said."

I watch as Lyssa raises her weapon, ready to end this here and now. But Scarlett's voice cuts in. "Wait."

She draws Lyssa aside for a conversation, their voices low. I strain to hear, catching only snippets. Lyssa sounds frustrated. "Are you fucking kidding me? Hadria will lose it at me— again ."

When they return, Lyssa's sigh is heavy with resignation. "We're taking Katy back to Chicago. Scarlett wants to see if she can be…deprogrammed."

Katy's protest is immediate. "I don't want to go to Chicago. Kill me now."

Lyssa's response is sharp. "You don't get a say in the matter."

As Lyssa and Scarlett load Katy into their car, I take Brie's hand and squeeze it. "You OK?"

"Never better." She gives me a closer look. "What is it?"

I try to find a way to explain it. "Well…let's just say you're definitely no ‘wannabe' anymore."

She grins. "Oh, really?" There's a flash of the old Brie there, and it warms my heart. I love her in all her aspects, but I don't want her to be so cold and merciless all the time, like she was tonight.

Wait.

Love?

"What is it?" Brie asks at once. "Nik, you look…weird. What's wrong?"

I'm frantically turning my word choice over in my mind, but my thoughts are interrupted by the sudden appearance of headlights in the distance, cutting through the darkness of the desert night. We all freeze, watching as the lights grow closer.

Two cars. One a minute or so behind the other. Both high off the ground—SUVs, or similar.

"You expecting company?" I call over to Lyssa and Scarlett, my hand already reaching for my weapon.

"Nope," Lyssa calls back, slamming the door on Katy. "Heads up, Scar." Lyssa and Scarlett take up defensive positions on either side of their car, and I open the back door of ours to pull Holden out, before positioning myself in front of him and Brie.

"What's going on?" he asks. "Who's coming?"

"Shut your mouth and let me do the talking," I snap, because the first car is close enough for me to recognize it now.

And we might all die here tonight if we're not careful.

The car pulls up, and the driver gets out, a too-familiar, hulking figure, who heads around to open the other door. And then my worst nightmare comes to life as Eva Novak jumps out in jeans and a cashmere sweater.

"Eva?" I call out. "I?—"

"Get in the car, Dominika," Eva orders. "Your job is done."

I don't move. My feet feel rooted to the ground, my loyalty to Brie warring with years of conditioned obedience to the Consortium.

To Eva.

"Why are you here?" I ask desperately.

"We are here because of you, naturally." Me? "Thank you, by the way, for being so diligent," she goes on. "I had my doubts about your loyalty, but the tracker signal you sent out worked perfectly. And so here we are, as you see."

"What tracker?" Brie asks sharply. "What does she mean?"

I shake my head. "I have no idea what she's talking about."

"Put the gun down, Dominika." Eva is still eerily calm. "You don't need to stay in character any longer. The play is done."

"Nik?" Brie sounds wary now. "What does she mean?"

But the second SUV has just pulled up, and my blood runs cold as the occupants step out. Frank Colombo, Larry Caruso, and Vince Sabatelli.

They seem to have found a new alliance, rather like I did with the Syndicate women. And now I know what's going on.

They're here for Brie.

I swing my sights toward the Colombos, and Leon swings his toward me. Eva repeats much more sharply, "Put the gun down , Dominika."

" Everyone should put their guns down," Brie says, stepping forward.

Her voice is steady, her chin held high. I'm ashamed I ever called her a wannabe gangster girl. I was wrong, so wrong. Brie Colombo is every inch an underworld queen, power radiating from her just like it does from Eva.

And I'm terrified I'm about to lose her.