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CHAPTER 280 PART 2
Marcus pulled out his phone and made a brief call. The conversation lasted less than ninety seconds. Mostly listening. A few short questions. He hung up and set the phone on the table."One of my contacts just confirmed it. Harris visited the old town personally that evening. He went in with six of his best men. He came back within the hour in a visible panic and issued the withdrawal order immediately. Full pullout. No conditions. No timeline for return. Whatever he saw in there, it changed his assessment of the situation permanently.""Did your contact say who he met?" Abbott leaned forward."Still under investigation. The identity hasn't surfaced yet."Rosa nodded as though this matched what she had already pieced together on her own."The newcomers are living in the abandoned commercial building on the east side of the market," Rosa traced a line on the table with her finger as though drawing a map. "The old furniture warehouse. No heat. No reliable electricity. They set up tents
CHAPTER 280 PART 1
The Volkswagen pulled onto a side street and Abbott killed the engine beneath a streetlight that had burned out weeks ago and hadn't been replaced. The building in front of them was old in the way that buildings in the old town were old.Not charming. Not historical. Just tired. The paint on the entrance panel was peeling in long strips that curled away from the concrete like dead skin. A buzzer panel sat beside the door with wires hanging loose from three of its eight slots. It had probably never worked."Fourth floor," Abbott stepped out and looked up at the building with the familiarity of someone who had climbed those stairs before.They went up without speaking. The stairwell smelled like cooking oil and old plaster and something floral that might have been laundry detergent or might have been someone's attempt to make the hallway livable. Fourth floor. Apartment 401. Abbott knocked twice with a specific rhythm that sounded practiced.The door opened.Rosa Cavalli stood in the do
CHAPTER 279 PART 2
Abbott exhaled through his nose. His eyes dropped to the ground for the first time since Marcus had known him."Roosevelt Shaw was detained this morning. They took him from his home in front of his neighbors. Nobody intervened. Nobody could.""And?""His daughter," Abbott's voice changed. It lost the professional layer and what remained underneath was raw and unfinished. "Lory Shaw. She's nine years old. They took her from outside her school this afternoon and brought her to a warehouse somewhere in the district."Marcus watched Abbott's face and waited."She's my goddaughter," Abbott's admission came with the slightly self-conscious energy of a man disclosing something he normally kept behind professional walls. "I know that sounds like something I'm saying to make this personal, but it is personal. Roosevelt's wife passed away three years ago and I promised her I would look after Lory if anything happened. Rosa Cavalli told me. She runs the tofu stall two blocks from the market. She
CHAPTER 279 PART 1
Marcus Steel leaned against a tree approximately two hundred meters from the highway and bit into an apple he had pulled from his jacket pocket somewhere between the park and the treeline. The crunch was loud in the quiet night air. Below him, through a gap in the branches, the final moments of the fight played out like a stage production viewed from the balcony.Maurice Springs killed Bruno Marcelli. The blade came down. The body dropped. Maurice screamed his promises into the darkness and then disappeared into the trees with his two remaining disciples dragging themselves after him like injured dogs following a wounded wolf.Marcus chewed slowly and watched the empty highway settle into silence.He had deliberately let Maurice leave alive. Death would be too simple. Too clean. Too final. A dead Maurice Springs was a problem that ended on a highway and never produced anything useful again. A living Maurice Springs was a problem that could be aimed, redirected, and detonated at a time
CHAPTER 278 PART 2
The sound was sharp and specific and horrible. Enzo's mouth opened in a scream that started deep in his chest and came out through his teeth as a high, thin whistle. His arms dropped to his sides and hung at angles that human arms were never designed to hold. His knees hit the asphalt and his body swayed but he didn't fall forward."Where is Marcus Steel?" Maurice stood over him with his chest heaving. "Tell me where he's hiding and I'll make the end fast. Lie to me and I'll take your legs next.""I told you," Enzo's voice was ragged and broken and pushed through clenched teeth. "I'm not with Marcus Steel. I don't know where he is. I came here with Bruno Marcelli to find him. We're on the same side, you idiot.""Liar.""I'm telling you the truth.""Then why were your men in a formation protecting someone when I arrived?""Because you threw a sword at my head! What was I supposed to do, invite you for dinner?"Maurice's hand closed around the back of Enzo's neck."Last chance. Where is
CHAPTER 277 PART 1
Both men wanted this over fast.Maurice Springs looked past Enzo Ricci at the bodyguards arranged in a defensive ring behind him and saw Marcus Steel's backup. Reinforcements. The kind that multiplied if you gave them time. Every second Maurice spent exchanging strikes with one man was a second that allowed more to arrive.Enzo looked at Maurice and saw the senior brother Marcus had described. The one who was considerably less patient. The one who was considerably less friendly. The longsword that had just pinned one of his men to a tree trunk confirmed the description with brutal accuracy. If this man had allies in the trees waiting to be called forward, finishing him quickly was the only viable strategy.They agreed without a single word exchanged between them. Maurice dropped his longsword. Enzo dropped his short blade. The weapons clattered on the asphalt at the same time, almost synchronized, and both men shifted into bare hand stances with the automatic precision of fighters who
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