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The Name
publish date:
2026-03-17 15:00:00Sergei's Pov
The file on Ace Rivera came through at nine that evening and I read it twice before I put it down.
Two close contacts at Wellspring. Marcus Webb, second year urban policy, and a girl named Priya Anand who Ace had tutored for two semesters. Bar work Tuesday through Saturday, closing shifts, a place called The Tap Room in East Vanguard. A weekend delivery route on the north residential block.
I focused on Marcus W
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THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION Seeds
Sergei's PovThe fifth contact happened on a Tuesday.Ace was on a supervised walk with one guard when I fell into step near him going the same direction. The guard was a few feet ahead, dealing with a call on his earpiece, which gave me about forty seconds."You look tired," I said, keeping my voice easy.Ace glanced at me. "Long night.""I know the feeling." I slowed my pace to match his. "Marcus asked about you again. He is worried.""Tell him not to be.""He would feel better hearing it from you." I paused. "Are you doing okay. Genuinely."Ace looked at me for a second. "I am fine.""Okay." I let that sit for a moment. "I heard something recently. Probably nothing but I felt like I should say it because Marcus cares about you."He looked at me more carefully
THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION The Shift
Ace's PovSomething changed after the grocery run and I could not name what it was.Nikolai had always been watchful but it was a different kind of watching now. Less like he was measuring me and more like he was waiting for something.He answered when I spoke to him and he was not cold exactly but there was a distance in it that had not been there the week before.Ivan was harder to read. He still sat on the rooftop with me in the afternoons and he still remembered things I said without making a production of it but the ease from before was not quite there. The smile was there but it stopped earlier than it used to.I noticed all of this and told myself it did not matter.Breakfast on Thursday was quiet. Nikolai read his newspaper standing up again, which he had not done in about two weeks, and Ivan scrolled through his phone and did not
THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION Cold
Ivan's PovThe photo came through at half past three in the afternoon.Musa sent it with no message, just the image attached. I opened it and looked at it for a long moment before I set the phone face down on the desk.I picked it up and looked again.Ace was standing in a grocery aisle and he was laughing, not a small, managed expression.Open, unguarded, turned toward the man standing two shelves over who I now knew was Daniel Osei.I sat with that for a while.The thing I felt was not what I expected. I expected concern or calculation or the professional alert I got when something in a situation shifted.All of those things were there but underneath them something else had moved, something cold and uncomfortable, and I did not have a name for it.I took the phone to Ni
THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION Telling Ivan
Ace's PovI did not plan to tell Ivan about it. It just came out.We were on the rooftop that afternoon, the usual hour, and I was looking at the street below and thinking about the encounter in the shop and how strange it had been to hear a familiar name said casually by someone who had no reason to be a threat.Ivan was in the other chair with his mug and he was not talking, which was normal. He had stopped trying to fill the rooftop time with conversation after the first few days. We just sat."I met someone today," I said.Ivan looked at me. "On the outing.""Yes. In the shop." I kept looking at the street. "He said he was Marcus's cousin. Daniel, said he moved here in January."Ivan was quiet."He knew about the policy seminar Marcus and I had together. He was easy to talk to. It was just a few words before your
THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION The Laugh
Ace's PovThe outing was a grocery run. Two guards, a driver, a list Ivan had written out and handed to me that morning with absolutely no commentary.I read through it on the way there. Specific brands, specific quantities. One item had a note next to it in Ivan's handwriting that said "not the cheap one." I had no idea what that meant but I found the item and did not buy the cheap one.The store was ordinary. Clean aisles, fluorescent lights, people with baskets moving around each other. The guards flanked me at a reasonable distance and I moved through the list without taking longer than I needed to.I was at the last aisle when I heard someone behind me say, "Marcus told me you were particular about coffee. He did not say anything about a whole grocery list."I turned around. Daniel was standing two shelves over with a single basket and a coffee cup in his other hand. He look
THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION First Contact
Sergei's PovThe clothing run happened on a Thursday.I had been watching the building for eleven days and the clothing run was only the second supervised outing I had seen. Three men on him. A driver and two others who walked close and kept their eyes moving. Whoever had arranged the security had done it carefully.I had been in position on the street since eight that morning in the delivery uniform, moving between three buildings on the block with a hand trolley and boxes. By the time the twins' car pulled up I had been on that street for four hours and nobody had looked at me twice.They went into a midrange clothing store two blocks from the building. One guard stayed outside. Two went in with Ace.I left the trolley and went in three minutes after them.It was a midsized shop, open floor plan, not many places to be invisible. I browsed near the back and
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