“It’s bait,” Dimitri adds, already pulling up satellite overlays. “Too clean. Too convenient.”
“Good,” I reply. “Then it’ll be easier to kill them both at once. Makes the hunt more exciting.”
Lev steps forward, voice hard. “You don’t get to do this alone.”
I meet his gaze. “Watch me.”
Roman spreads his hands, irritation flashing. “You go in alone, you die alone. That’s not strategy—that’s ego.”
“This isn’t strategy,” I say quietly. “It’s justice.”
Mike’s mouth curves into something grim. “You burn that place down, you light half the city on fire with it.”
“I don’t care,” I snap. “I’ll reduce it to ash if that’s what it takes.”
Lev’s jaw tightens. “This is about Raelyn.”
“Yes,” I say, just as sharply. “Which is why I go alone.”
Dimitri steps in now, calm but lethal. “You don’t get to martyr yourself. Not when there are other ways.”
“There aren’t,” I cut in. “Not for this.”
Roman’s voice lowers. “You’re compromised.”
I laugh once, cold. “I’m focused.”
“You’re reckless,” Lev says.
“I’m finished pretending restraint matters,” I reply.
Mike pushes off the wall, eyes narrowing. “You walk into that warehouse solo, you’re playing their game.”
“No,” I say, leaning forward, hands braced on the desk. “I’m ending it.”
The room goes tense—charged. My brothers start talking over one another.
“We flank—”
“We draw them out—”
“We cut power—”
“We wait—”
“Enough.”
My voice isn’t loud. It doesn’t need to be.
Silence slams down instantly.
I straighten, meeting each of them in turn. “This man”—I tap the screen where Reed’s face freezes mid-step—“lied to my wife. He put her father in the ground and handed her grief like a gift. Markov signed off on it. They threatened her. They baited me.”
I step closer, my voice dropping into something sharp enough to cut bone.
“This isn’t a negotiation. This isn’t a team exercise. This is personal.”
Lev exhales slowly. “You’re asking us to stand down.”