European Novels & Stories

"It connects to a name we haven't encountered yet in any of the other investigations." "Show me," Valeria said. She crossed to the table. Caselli pointed at a document. A name at the top of the beneficial ownership structure. Not Italian. Not connected to anything in the Romano or De Luca world. Not connected to Conti or Marini or Fontana or any of the forty-one names that had populated six weeks of investigation. A European name. An institutional name. She looked at it. "He's connected to a European regulatory body," she said. "Yes," Caselli said. "Which means this network doesn't stop at Italy's borders." She held Valeria's ga

Tense, Azrael let his arm, raised for a blow, drop a little. "Yes, what do you know?" He asked with a hiss and crouched down in front of the Spaniard. "I know that ... it's some science organization in the EU." "What is this EU?" Asked Azrael. "The European Union. A federation of all states in Europe, so to speak, in order to work together and to represent each other to the outside world. " "Interesting," he just mumbled, got up and stepped away from the trembling heap of misery on the wall. That didn't really help him, but it was always better than nothing.

The urge to say I told you so was so tempting. “If we enlarge the radius to take up all of Eastern Europe, we add this many people.” He dropped another stack, this one not as thick but large enough. “This is the rest of Europe.” Another chunk. “And this is the rest of the world.” He dropped the rest of the stack, a hefty little pile, though not nearly as large as the first one. That did surprise me. I hadn’t been paying attention to anything outside of Europe. I wondered how he’d gotten all of that so fast but didn’t go there at the moment.

“Ready, Rossi?” “Mhmm,”her smile so tight it could slice glass. The first question came rapid-fire in French. “Monsieur Sinclair, what are Sinclair International’s immediate plans for integrating into the EU technology sector?” Vincent waited patiently, expecting her to translate. Isabella turned toward him and blurted, “He said… uh… how excited are you about Europe?” The journalists blinked. Vincent arched an eyebrow. “Did he?” She nodded like a bobblehead. “Definitely.”

“Hey.” “Everything okay?” I asked. He hesitated a fraction of a second too long. “We have a situation.” My stomach tightened. “What kind of situation?” He came around the desk and crouched in front of me, bringing himself level with my eyes. “I want you to hear this from me before it becomes noise.” I nodded, bracing myself. “There’s movement on the European front,” he said carefully. “Shell companies shifting assets. Quiet acquisitions.” The words clicked together too easily.

“It means he doesn’t belong to a pack. And that makes him dangerous.” Something about the way he said it made the hairs on my arms rise. “Why?” Jace hesitated, then dropped the bomb. “Because unclaimed omegas attract them.” My breath caught in my throat. There was that word again. “Omega,” I echoed. “He called me that. What does it mean?” Jace didn’t look away, didn’t try to soften the blow. “It means you’re not just human, Anna.” The room suddenly felt too small, too warm. I gripped the edge of the couch, my heart pounding.

He expects tension from Lucien. Defensiveness. Emotion. Instead, Lucien leans forward slightly. “I’ve reviewed the draft proposal,” he says calmly. “The European demographic focus is too broad.” The marketing head stiffens. Adrian’s eyes slide to Lucien. “Explain.” Lucien stands without hesitation. He walks to the screen and taps the slide remote. A new graph appears. “I ran numbers from the last three years of export data,” he says. “Our strongest potential buyers aren’t France or Italy. It’s Denmark and the Netherlands. Smaller markets. Higher per-bottle spending.”

If I just ignore the fact that Europe is happening soon. Everything will be just fine.

“But not here.” Marco frowned. “Where then?” Cassius was quiet for a few seconds before answering. “In Europe.” The room went silent after that, because Cassius rarely talked about his time in Europe, and when he did, it usually meant the situation was more serious than it looked. Stefano crossed his arms. “Tell me.” Cassius stood up and walked toward the board, then picked up a marker and wrote the name ADRIAN VOSS in large letters at the top corner.