Kit could remember almost to the exact moment when he knew everything wasn’t all that it seemed with his younger brother.

It was during one of those cold, winter nights years ago when Kit had been barely old enough to call himself a teenager. Despite spending most of his days away at the boarding school his father forced him to attend, he was permitted to come home during the two very short weeks during the winter holiday.

Kit hadn’t minded staying away, enjoying the peace that came with not having to worry about a tyrant living only one floor above you. Besides, this year he had finally made a few friends—an impossible feat in the remote estate where one would have to travel at least twenty minutes by car just to find a neighbor.

As a child, he’d been rather content being alone, finding enjoyment in solitary acts—anything to stay out of his father’s way—but as he got older and grew tired of puzzles and word games (both in which he excelled at), he longed for other human interaction besides the family he’d rather not be a part of.

Well, with the exception of Uilleam.

Everything had changed when he was born, from the relationship between their parents, down to the way the household was run. Their mother had spoiled Uilleam rotten, but in the process, she also shielded him from the wrath of her husband—something she had never done for Kit.

Perhaps, that was where his need to protect Uilleam at all costs had come from. His mother, though never having outright said as much—had conditioned Kit to look after him more than he possibly needed.

And it was for that reason that when Kit heard his father’s booming yell, he’d hopped down from his perch on the windowsill and went running.

So as long as he was in the house, usually Alexander Runehart let Uilleam be if only because he was terrorizing Kit—this would be the first time in a long time he’d heard his brother in trouble.

But, when he hastened down the two flights of stairs, his brother wasn’t the one he found to be in trouble with his father, but Clifton, one of his security.

Kit had never liked the man, nor the man him. Though Clifton was nearly two decades his senior, the man was often jealous of Kit—though there was very little reason to be—simply because he would become his father’s successor one day.

It didn’t matter that Kit wanted no part of the Runehart legacy.

Nor did it matter that what time Kit did spend with his father, he was being terrorized—no, the man only saw what he wanted to see.

That, he could handle. Clifton wouldn’t be the first to dislike him, nor would he be the last. He had learned rather quickly how to ignore what bothered him. The problem came in when his father hadn’t gotten enough enjoyment out of inflicting his punishments, but sought out others to do the same.

Clifton gleefully volunteered.

Blinking as he took in the scene before him, Kit saw Abigail with a hand to her chest and fire in her eyes standing off to one side, Uilleam diligently by her side though slightly behind her.

In her left hand, she held a diamond-studded choker, one of her most prized possessions. She didn’t know it was a necklace Alexander had taken from the dead body of his former mistress—Kit thought only he was privy to that knowledge.

Cold, accusing eyes were trained on Clifton, but his own attention was fixated to Alexander and the cleaver he held in his right hand.

“You think to steal from me?” Alexander asked, a dangerous light to his face.

Though Kit longed to ask what was happening, he kept his mouth shut, knowing that he would rather be clueless than to garner his father’s attention.

“I would never steal from you, boss,” Clifton said in a gravelly voice, his unease prevalent. “This is some kind of mistake. I—”

“How eager you were,” Alexander went on as though the other man hadn’t spoken, “to punish my son for eating when he wasn’t meant to be, yet you betray me by stealing from my wife?”

Kit remembered all too well the punishment he had taken for sneaking down to the kitchen for a slice of the massive cake that lay sitting on the counter. He had just been setting in to eat a giant slice with a spoon when Clifton had found him in there.

He had meant to run upstairs, flee before the man could call on his father, but Clifton snagged him before he could take a step, fingers fisting in the back of his sleep shirt. In his haste to make sure he didn’t get away, Clifton had managed to knock over the towering cake, sending it splattering to the floor before it could be saved.

Once Alexander arrived shortly after, Clifton had wasted no time in placing the blame on Kit, and even offered to do the punishment himself.

Alexander wasted no time in agreeing.

He was to get twenty lashings with the same heavy silver spoon he’d intended to eat with—because no one will steal from me, he’d said.

Kit had barely made it through seven before he was wailing in agony, feeling like Clifton had managed to break a number of bones in his hands.

Only when he was knocked to the ground by a closed fist did Kit realize Uilleam stood in the shadow of the alcove, his expression unreadable, but he’d disappeared in the blink of an eye.

It was that same kind of expression reflected on Uilleam’s face now. He too, watched without speaking.

Kit quickly put two and two together, realizing that Clifton was being accused of stealing the necklace Abigail now held.

“I didn’t!” Clifton exclaimed, his panic growing as two of Alexander’s security moved to grab him. His gaze cut to Kit, as though only now realizing he was in the room. “It was probably the kid,” he shouted out desperately. “I saw him looking at it the other day—little shit is trying to set me up.”

Alexander sent Kit a dismissive glance. “He’s been away these last few days, if you remember. He would have had no time to do it, but I thank you for showing me the kind of man you are. Hold him.”

Clifton screamed bloody murder as Alexander drew nearer, gleaming cleaver in hand. A part of Kit wanted to look away, to close his eyes against the horror he was about to witness, but the rest wanted to watch Clifton suffer.

And with one mighty arch of the cleaver, Alexander severed Clifton’s fingers from his hands, leaving spurting, bloody stumps behind.

Gushing red spilled over the table, soaking into the white tablecloth, and sprinkling over fine china. Kit could almost taste the copper in the air.

Clifton collapsed to the ground, crying and yelling even as he tried to clutch his bloody hands to his chest.

Alexander’s security dragged him out.

As if the last five minutes hadn’t transpired, Abigail sniffled, raising her chin slightly. “You should find better security.”

And they moved on, as if nothing had happened.

It wasn’t until later that night that Uilleam made an uncharacteristic stop by his room. He hadn’t said a word as he joined Kit by the window.

Then, with a voice as calm as day, he asked, “I never did like him. And he lied when he said you knocked over the cake—and I’ve never liked liars either.”

He was just a boy then—or should have been—but as Kit watched his brother turn to leave as he had so many times before, he couldn’t ignore that curling feeling of unease sitting low in his stomach.

Quiet and unassuming, that was how their father liked to describe Uilleam, but Kit learned that there was much more to his brother than what he allowed to show.

And he didn’t think that was good at all.

Not much had changed over the later years, only Uilleam got better at what he did and Kit outgrew his father’s rampage. The first chance he was got, he’d walked away without looking back.

They both led separate lives, taking them down two different paths.

Yet, somehow they ended up here—together once more. And just as he had that night, Kit felt the familiar tightening.

Uilleam was playing a game, he realized—except now he didn’t know what game it was, only that Luna was somehow a part of it.

He just needed to find the connection.

Kit made it a point to find his own information. While he didn’t have the skills of a hacker, he made do, but despite his best efforts he hadn’t been able to find anything on Luna.

That wasn’t uncommon—Uilleam made it a point to scrub his mercenaries’ identities once he selected them, making it far easier to keep them off the grid—but Kit could recover at least a few details of the lives they had led before they joined the Den.

With Luna, there was nothing.

Even if he weren’t suspicious of Uilleam’s motives before, he was now. Because it only begged the question, what was he trying to hide?

It was for this reason that Kit found himself entering Calypso’s Tavern, a watering hole in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. While the interior looked like it hadn’t been renovated in more than thirty years—the floor worn and damaged in certain spots—those that ventured inside weren’t concerned with the aesthetic of the place, but rather the freelancers that took up residence inside.

Two pool tables sat toward the back of the space with a number of round tables occupying the rest of the floor. The lighting was dim, hard rock spilling from speakers mounted on the ceiling.

Benji, the resident bartender, was at his post, a bottle of whiskey in one hand as he laughed at whatever story he was being told by the burly man seated in front of him. Once he was finished pouring the row of shots, pocketing the bills the man slapped down, he looked up, surprise in his gaze as Kit approached.

“Been a while, Nix.To what do I owe the visit?”

“Is he back there?”

Though Kit had ventured into this place more than a dozen times, he had only come for one person so he never bothered to use a name anymore.

“Yeah, he is, but he’s in a shit mood so watch yourself.”

When was he not?

Accepting the warning with a nod, he started for the back room, blinking to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. Unlike the dull, yellow tone that was prominent throughout the bar, red saturated the back hallway. There were three doors, one leading to a restroom, another for storage, and the last that was painted black—and unlike the other two, this one was made of reinforced steel.

On that door, Kit knocked twice.

“Password!”

“Must we really do this when you quite obviously know it’s me?”

There was a camera just above the door, one that allowed the man on the other side of the door a clear picture of who was standing on the other side—there was also another outside the tavern.

Undoubtedly, Kit’s presence had been noticed before he had even walked through the doors.

“Then you shouldn’t have a problem giving the password.”

With a roll of his eyes, Kit finally, begrudgingly answered, “Beware the Jabberwock with jaws that bite and claws that catch.”

When the heavy bolt disengaged, and the door finally swung open, revealing the man on the other side, Kit frowned.

“You do know that your password is not very clever,” he said once he was allowed entry.

The other man shrugged. “Gets the job done though, no?”

Semyon Kreshnik was not like most hackers. While he was a proud blackhat, he still had a moral compass, but no one was ever sure which way he would lean. If one came to him with the wrong offer, he wasn’t opposed to using his skills against them.

And worse, he didn’t give a shit about money.

“What can I do for you, Phoenix?” Semyon asked as he closed the door behind them, shifting the lock into place. “I thought you were retired.”

While the Lotus Society had a number of hackers on their payroll, Kit had always preferred using outside contractors, especially when it came to information he needed kept private.

“I am retired,” Kit said, studying the display of six screens against the wall.

While he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing, it all made sense to Semyon as he returned to his seat, dropping the wireless keyboard in his lap. Tattooed fingers flew over the keys, the screens blacking out one by one.

“I guess we’re all retired until we’re not,” he said, glancing back. “So what do you need? I owe you that favor from Moscow last year, so let’s clear it.”

Semyon was very much like Uilleam in that way—he didn’t like owing anyone—and though Kit had told him there was nothing to repay, he insisted.

“I need you to find someone—Luna Santiago.” Kit also gave her date of birth and where she was born, but he also added, “It may be hard to find her considering every trace of her was scrubbed by one of The Kingmaker’s associates.”

Semyon gave him a droll stare. “Associates? Right. If they were any good, he wouldn’t have offered me a job.”

This was the first he heard of it. “And you didn’t accept?”

“I’ve never played well with others. Might want to have a seat, Nix,” Semyon said with a nod of his head to the black leather couch against the wall. “This might take a minute.”

---

“How’s he doing?” Luna asked as she walked with Zachariah through the halls of the compound, just spotting the edge of a man’s bare feet dragging across the floor as he was dumped in what was affectionately known as the Silent Room.

It wasn’t because the room ever stayed that way. Sure, in the beginning there was nothing but the voices to keep you company when you were inside since it was pitch black and soundproof.

It was never the place one wanted to stay for long lest the demons trapped in their heads came rushing back to suffocate them.

After the silence came a blaring, high-pitched noise that was loud enough to create an instant headache. Then came the lights that flashed so bright one’s pupils dilated painfully, and only after long, agony-filled seconds did it all start over again, creating a vicious cycle of discomfort that broke even the strongest of people down.

Most that came to this place seeking the benefits were already broken to the point that nothing could have been worse than what they had already experienced—and ultimately, the Silent Room had helped to center them instead.

There had been one, Luna remembered vividly, that hadn’t responded well to the room. They hadn’t known at the time, because he had been rather calm when it was time for his release, but the second the door was opened, he attacked with a vengeance, wounding seven before he was finally tranquilized.

His demons didn’t just find him in the dark—they were constantly winding him up.

Syn, his name was.

“Recovering,” Zachariah answered as they rounded the corner toward his office. “I thought you would have known.”

She hadn’t seen much of Uilleam in the weeks since the shooting. Kit was being paranoid, explaining that whoever had come after Uilleam could have been targeting his family, and he wanted to keep her safe.

If it were up to him, he would have kept her locked away in his safe house instead of at the Den.

Thankfully, Zachariah had called with an assignment for her, and only after he explained that it was merely a request to find someone and nothing more, he agreed that she could do it—which both amused and frustrated her.

Despite who she was married to, she wanted to keep the two separate. Though her relationship to Uilleam was never spoken about, Kit wouldn’t hide who he was to her should he ever come to the compound.

And while she was never, and could never, be ashamed of him, Luna still wanted to be more than just The Facilitator’s wife.

Once they reached Zachariah’s office, he allowed her to go ahead of him before he came in behind, closing the door and setting the alarm, as he always did when he brought someone into his office—his way of preventing leaks.

Whether they talked amongst themselves was one thing, but when he handed out assignments, Zachariah made sure it was only to the one listed on the contract.

“I have a job for you,” he said as he handed her a familiar manila folder, then stuck a thumb drive into the port in his desk.

Almost immediately, a projector flickered on, and the very documents Luna was reading from the folder were now displayed on the wall.

“The client’s name is Belladonna.”

“That’s a great name,” Luna muttered to herself, glancing over the woman’s profile.

A woman with an affliction for using the drug belladonna to kill those that stood in her way.

Luna liked her already.

But there was little more information offered about the woman. Usually, the clients were thoroughly vetted, and their histories could be traced back decades.

Luna’s curiosity was piqued.

“What’s the assignment?” she found herself asking, the second time within two months.

“She’s looking for someone. Andrei Kanekov. Our intelligence tells us he hasn’t been on the grid financially for the last four years, but his face has popped up within a few databases. Your job is to find him.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

And it did, but Luna was still a little curious about the woman who only seemed to have a name and an affinity for poisons.

---

Sitting in the lobby of the building where she was meant to wait for Belladonna, Luna couldn’t help looking around the place and admiring the sheer beauty of it.

Her offices were mostly steel and glass, with the dećors in shades of gray and white. Even the floors were made of a white marble with veins of gray.

It was the click of heels that had Luna looking up at the woman walking toward her, a pair that she wouldn’t have thought possible to walk in until she saw it.

Unlike the rest of the women in the office, she wasn’t wearing bright, fun colors, instead a black pencil skirt, and a sheer and sleeveless blouse that was nearly as dark as her skirt.

Wavy brown hair was bound in an elegant chignon at the nape of her neck, and pearl earrings adorning her ears.

“Calavera,” she greeted with a friendly, though secretive smile. “A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance—I’ve heard great things.”

Luna wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. “Belladonna?”

She nodded. “As good a name as any, I suppose. Please, let’s speak in my office.”

Her office was located one floor up, only accessible by a private elevator hidden inside a storage closet.

“I appreciate your enduring my security measures, but you can understand my discretion as an employee of The Kingmaker’s.”

“Sure.”

Over the years, she had seen a great many things when it came to the individuals that sought the aid of Uilleam. They all had peculiar habits, especially when it came to avoiding unwanted attention.

Though this was far more elaborate than anything she had seen thus far, she wasn’t surprised by it.

Belladonna’s office was blindingly white, from the marble flooring, to the massive desk, and even the vase of roses set on top, but curiously, there was a blue rose nestled in the center of the bouquet.

“I understand that you need me to find someone,” Luna said as she took a seat, crossing her legs as the woman mirrored her actions.

“That will come in time, but for now, I would like to get to know you first. Tell me, Calavera, how did you manage to catch the attention of both Runehart brothers?”

Belladonna had a pleasant sort of accent, one that spoke of a life having grown up in the upper echelon of British society. It had crisp, refined edges, while still flowing pleasantly.

It almost felt like talking to royalty.

“I don’t have their attention, as you put it. I work for one, and the other—”

“You’re sleeping with him, are you not?”

Her tone hadn’t changed from simple curiosity, but Luna sat up a little straighter. “Tell me about the assignment.”

Belladonna still looked unbothered. “The man I’m looking for is an expert at making people disappear,” she explained. “Six months ago, he was tasked with relocating a man by the name of Roger Tillman. I’ve asked for your services in bringing him to me. I’ve taken the liberty in preparing a file for your perusal.”

Luna accepted it, though her eyes remained on her new employer. “Is there a timeline you would like me to stick to?”

“I’m sure you’ll find him in no time at all. Three days should be plenty of time.”

Luna wasn’t so sure, but she couldn’t demand more time before she had even started. “Understood.”

“And just to make sure I understand correctly, your role as mercenary and lover aren’t mutually exclusive, yes? I value my privacy, Calavera, and I can’t have it compromised because you like to share with your bedfellow.”

Luna ground her teeth. Though she hadn’t been on a great many assignments since they had begun giving them to her, there had only been one other occasion when someone had brought up her connection to both Uilleam and Kit.

She wanted to tell them that she was capable of separating the two, but she didn’t bother—she doubted they would care.

And it would be far easier to show them.

“I’ll see it done.”

---

“Your girl’s a fucking ghost,” Semyon said some time later, pushing away from the screens he’d been scanning for the last three hours.

Despite the long hours, Kit had spent the time catching up on emails and going through proposals while he waited. And with Luna gone to the Den, he only had time on his hands.

Closing his screen back out, Kit pocketed his phone, getting to his feet to get closer to the screens and what information Semyon had found—or lack thereof as it were.

“A ghost is about what I expected, Semyon,” Kit returned as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. “It means my brother did his part.”

“Nah,” Semyon said with a shake of his head. “I’ve seen his level of scrubbing, and I can still find traces, but with her, there’s nothing—literally. Whoever he hired didn’t just scrub, he made it so that she doesn’t exist.”

The suspicion that had nagged at him since that night in bed with Luna only grew worse. No, it didn’t make sense for Uilleam to go through that much trouble.

But because he had, once again, Kit was asking himself: who was Luna Santiago?

Kit no longer believed she was just a girl Uilleam had stumbled upon, but not knowing what answers awaited him, he didn’t think it best to go to Luna directly—but rather in a way that didn’t inspire suspicion.

After all, she held the key to the whole mystery whether she knew it or not.

Tugging an envelope full of cash out of his breast pocket, Kit set it down next to Semyon’s keyboard. “I’m keeping you on retainer until I finish this—I may need your expertise.”

Semyon kicked his legs up, emptying the contents of the envelope with little care as he fanned through the hundred-dollar bills there. “Whatever you need, Nix.”

Exiting, Kit was almost back to his car when his phone rang. “Nix.”

“Hello, Nix.”

The man spoke with a marked accent, one that made Kit frown. He also spoke with a familiarity that Kit didn’t understand. “Do I know you?”

“You don’t,” the other man said. “But I’m sure you want to.”

Hitting the button on the key fob to unlock his car, Kit asked, “Why is that?”

His answer was immediate. “I tried to have your brother killed.”