Semua Bab THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Ace's Pov On the fifth day Nikolai told me I could use the rooftop. "One hour. Musa stays on the door." He did not wait for me to respond. I went straight up. One camera above the door, one guard, no second exit. I noted it all and then sat down and let the sun hit my face and tried not to think about anything for a few minutes. It lasted about ten before Ivan came through the door with two mugs. He set one beside me and dropped into the other chair like he had been planning to come up here the whole time. "Musa called you," I said. "I saw you on the camera." "There are cameras up here." "There are cameras everywhere." He picked up his mug, no apology in it. I picked up mine. It was in the right temperature. I said nothing about the fact that he had paid attention to which one

Sergei'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 Webb. His social media was easy to find. He posted regularly, food and campus things mostly. Three weeks ago he had put up a caption that read "Finally someone I know in this city" with a photo of two coffee cups on a table.  That was enough. I called my background man. "Marcus Webb has a cousin who visited recently. I need a full identity built around that. Male, mid twenties, logistics work. Name is Daniel Osei." 

Ivan's Pov It happened at breakfast again. Nikolai was reading something on his phone and Ace reached across the counter for the coffee pot without asking and Nikolai moved his mug out of the way automatically, without looking up, like he had already known the reach was coming. Ace poured his coffee and set the pot back and said, "Thank you." Nikolai said, "I did nothing." "You moved your mug." "I moved my mug for my own convenience." Ace looked at him. "Okay." He picked up his cup and went back to his book. I watched all of that happen and then I looked at my own plate and thought about it for the rest of breakfast. Later that afternoon I found Nikolai in his office and I sat down across from him without being invited. "Ace's remarks," I said. Nikolai loo

Ace's Pov The 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

 Ivan's Pov The 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