For the first time in weeks, when Luna woke up, she wasn’t happy she was alone.

Kit had gone sometime in the night, his side of the bed cold, and if not for the smell of him that lingered on the sheets, she would have thought he had never been there at all.

There was a stillness to the house around her that made her deflate at the idea that Kit had not only left, but he hadn’t even said goodbye.

Before they’d separated, that fact may not have worried her, but after last night … He was angry with her, and he hadn’t been shy about telling her so.

More than anything, she had felt that pain more keenly than she had ever felt anything.

Taking one last glance at her vacant bedside, Luna threw the sheets off as she strolled into the bathroom for a shower.

Today wasn’t like the others.

There wouldn’t be anything behind-the-scenes of what she was doing today—they were going to get a reaction.

A part of her had always wondered if it made her a bad person for plotting against her sister. Even as she thought back on her relationship with her, she still couldn’t see any one thing that was terrible about their relationship.

Sure, she could be a bit mean sometimes and even made her cry on occasion, but what Luna was planning to do to her … it was hard to compare the two.

Luna had only just come back into the bedroom when she noticed the papers on the dresser, folded neatly down the middle.

With one hand gripping the front of her towel, she used the other to flip the pages over to see what they were.

Divorce papers.

Her heart nearly dropped out of her chest at the sight of them.

Kit was never supposed to find them.

A year ago, when she hadn’t seen an end in sight, and the only thing she wanted more than revenge against Carmen was to get away from Kit, she’d found someone willing to draft the papers for her.

Just at the mention of his name had a number of people walking before she could even tell them what she wanted, which only annoyed her further.

But once she had found someone, she had felt victorious, finally feeling like she was close to getting what she wanted, but after spending a night thinking of those papers and permanently ending everything between her and Kit, she hadn’t felt any happiness at the thought.

It had started to hurt thinking about it.

She didn’t want to lose him—she loved him.

So those pages had been left abandoned in a bag somewhere. She hadn’t realized that she had brought that bag along.

Tossing the pages back down, Luna squeezed her eyes shut as she turned away. The only thing she wanted to do was worry about what Kit could possibly be thinking, but she had a job to do, and they were on a schedule.

That was what he would say, at least.

The job came first, always.

But after, she was going to call him, though she hadn’t the slightest idea what she would say.

I’m sorry you found the divorce papers?

They’re not what you think?

Both excuses sound like just that … excuses. Neither sounded like anything she would want to hear if the situation were reversed.

Dressing quickly, Luna pulled her hair back into a ponytail and grabbed her keys. She headed out the door, taking her car across the city to the downtown loft where The Wild Bunch were staying.

Instead of four bikes, there were five parked along the curb—one for her, she thought.

That was the easy thing about them, Luna had learned. They were always together. Where one was, the rest would usually follow.

Luna rang the buzzer, waiting for the lock to disengage before she headed inside. Following the sounds of rock music to the back of the loft, she found three of the four men she was looking for.

Thanatos and Invictus were both sitting on a wide sectional, controllers in their hands as they played Call of Duty: Black Ops II on a giant television mounted to the wall. Their gazes barely lifted, though they did offer her smiles and a chin nod before turning back to their game.

The sight of them relaxed might have been a first for her had they not been in their full gear, their masks resting on the table in front of them.

Tăcut stood alone in the kitchen, looking over a set of blueprints and security schematics with a can of Sprite in one hand and a pen in the other.

She couldn’t fully see what he was marking until she was beside him and had a clearer view of what he was studying.

“I thought you already went over these?” she asked once she was next to him, her gaze sweeping over the plans laid out in front of them.

Each entry point was marked, and positions where security were usually posted was indicated with a red circle.

Luna knew the layout and had studied the plans just as thoroughly as Tăcut had for the last two nights. And thanks to a little recon by Skorpion, they even had video footage of what the inside of the store looked like and the location of each security camera.

Tăcut nodded—indicating that he had looked over the prints—but he tapped a spot around the front entrance of the boutique where he had marked the spot with a question mark.

“What’s that?” she asked, though the answer hit her before he could write out his response. “Is it a safe?”

He nodded again.

“Why the hell would she have a safe in the middle of the floor?”

It didn’t make sense.

If she hadn’t had an office, plus another safe inside of it, Luna might not have thought it strange, but what could Ariana need to keep in there that she couldn’t keep stashed away in her office.

Or maybe that was the whole idea …

“Maybe the safe in her office is a decoy,” Luna said, looking from the diagram to Tăcut. “Maybe the important stuff is kept in here, instead of in her office because that would be the first place anyone looked.”

Tăcut seemed to consider this a moment before nodding, agreeing with her point.

“That’s a problem, no?” Fang asked as he walked over, pulling on a black T-shirt whose sleeves molded to his arms. As the material dropped into place, it concealed the myriad of scars that crisscrossed across his abdomen and back. “Floor safes are notoriously hard to get into.”

On the contrary … “I know someone who can be of assistance.”

Stepping to the side, Luna pulled out her phone and dialed Celt. “I need your expertise,” she said once he was on the line.

“What in the hell are you up to?” came his jovial response, “and why am I not involved?”

Celt lived for finding new ways to crack safes and break into high-security facilities just to prove he could.

A floor safe would be nothing to him … especially since she had seen him crack one in no time weeks ago.

“We have that other thing in a few days. I need you for that more.” Luna smiled. “Besides, this would be too easy for you.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Celt responded with a chuckle. “Go on then, tell me what you need.”

She gave him everything she could, going off the scale of the safe from the plans.

“Two options. First, you can torture the hell out of whoever has the combination—easy and clean if you do it right. Or you can do as I enjoy and blow some shite up.”

“Tell me more about the second.”

“You’ll need a small charge. Enough to break through the door, but not enough that you destroy everything inside. How much C4 do you have?”

It was Fang who answered. “Enough to level a small country.”

Celt response was less friendly. “Who in the hell is that?”

“Fang—you’ll meet him when you get here.”

“the Kingmaker?”

“Nix,” Luna responded, knowing what he was asking.

“Your husband has his own team? Fucking hell, there’s another one?”

Luna didn’t bother trying to contain her laughter. “Tell us how to crack it.”

Celt explained in excruciating detail how to go about it—from the amount of C4 to use, where to connect it, and the distance from which one would have to stand to ensure they didn’t get injured in the process.

“Let me know how it goes, eh?”

“You got it.”

Luna ended the call, pocketing her phone as she looked back at Fang and Tăcut. “Is that everything we need?”

Fang strapped his vest into place. “More than.”

Thanatos walked over, with Invictus trailing behind him. Wearing a crooked smile and messy blond hair, he was holding a mask nearly identical to the ones he and the rest of The Wild Bunch wore. “Time to walk in our shoes.”

---

Ariana’s diamond boutique was located in a highly populated area, one with a clientele that had salaries in the high six-figures. Picturesque with high-end stores located on either side of it, it wasn’t just the cartel’s security they needed to worry about.

But this early in the morning, there would be very little collateral damage. Only a few people were actually shopping at this hour, and security was down to a minimum.

Skorpion headed in first, perusing the cases of jewelry on display, charming the woman who came over to help him browse.

Luna headed around the back, The Wild Bunch on her heels, and pulled her mask into place, making sure she was just as covered as they were. With the sheer amount of gear she had on, it would be much harder to tell if she was male or female, even though she was several inches shorter than the others were.

Fang touched his fingers to the door, looking back at them. His expression was unreadable with his mask in place, but Luna knew without having to see.

This was it.

Shifting the rifle in her hands, she nodded once.

She was ready.

Fang checked the electronic display on his armband one last time, watching the seconds count down before an almost physical change came over him. He went from playful and loose to nearly robotic with his movement.

Once the clock struck zero, he attached a small charge to the lock and took a step back.

Holding one hand up, he counted down from five, and the second his hand made a fist, it exploded, blowing bits of metal and wood out as the door came swinging open.

Rifles at the ready, The Wild Bunch moved in.

Before they were fully inside the hallway, a security guard rounded the corner. His hand was already on his gun, but before he could even think of calling for backup, Tăcut put two in his chest.

Luna might have felt bad for the man had she not read the file they had on him while deciding on how best to hit this place. Divorced because he liked to put his fists to his wife—or ex-wife, rather—the woman had left before the ink was finally dry.

No, Luna didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

Rounding the corner, The Wild Bunch moved in synchronized fashion as they quickly and methodically took out the rest of the guards, but the guards were easy. While they had been slow to return fire, Ariana’s men didn’t hesitate.

One yelled in Spanish, firing rounds that had shards of glass behind Luna exploding and raining down, but before he could hit any of them, Thanatos took him out.

“Do you have any fucking idea who you’re stealing from?” one asked once Tăcut had him disarmed and on his knees.

Tăcut merely cocked his head to the side before removing a pair of zip ties from his pocket and tying the man up.

Pulling a small receiver from his pocket, Fang hit a button and set the device down, an electronic voice calling over the screaming. “Get on the floor and put your hands over your head. Cooperate, and no one will be harmed.”

It repeated the message over and over, and one by one, each person inside the store did as the recording instructed as quickly as possible.

Except for Skorpion, who took his time getting on the floor and couldn’t bother to even look afraid.

Thanatos and Invictus disappeared into the back while Fang and Tăcut moved around the corner and to the safe in the floor.

Celt had explained in great detail how to break into one—Luna had even watched him do it once before at a house in the Hills—and despite most of what he’d said having gone over her head, Fang had understood it well enough to replicate his process.

There was a shout of surprise somewhere in the back, a woman’s startled yell, and then two gunshots.

Luna’s heart skipped a beat.

She wasn’t supposed to be here …

As many times as they had gone over Ariana’s schedule, poring over each and every detail, the one thing they had always noted was that she never came into her store on a Tuesday. It was the day she went shopping and spent a small fortune.

Of course, they had formed a plan in case she did show up, and Luna wasn’t worried that the plan would fail in any way, but as Thanatos dragged Ariana out to the main floor none too gently, she was reminded that this was the first time she was seeing her sister this close in years.

Even at the theater, she had been across the room, still a stranger in the crowd of people in attendance, but now as she was forced to her knees right in front of Luna, looking up at her with open hostility, she was no longer a distant memory.

“You don’t know who you’re messing with!” Ariana spat at her, not seeming bothered in the slightest by the barrel of the rifle Luna had pointed at her face.

Luna was tempted to answer, so fucking tempted, but she didn’t speak. Soon, though, she would spell it out for her.

The ground shook as the safe exploded, and Ariana forgot all about being angry as her face morphed into fear. “Leave that—”

Before she could move an inch, Luna clamped a hand down on her shoulder, forcing her to remain in place.

There was a box inside, one they knew held everything they had come for.

Ripping the top off, Fang removed the folders they needed, tucking them all into his vest.

It was time to leave.

Lining back up, they started out the back, taking the recorder with them, keeping their guns trained on everyone still on the floor.

No one dared to move—they didn’t even look up.

Climbing onto her bike, Luna waited for Fang’s nod before she took off, heading back to the safe house they rented. As she drove, now hearing the distant sirens of approaching police, she glanced down at her own watch.

It felt like they’d been inside forever, but it had only been a matter of minutes.

---

“So help me, if someone doesn’t give me answers, I will have your heads.”

To say that Carmen wasn’t handling the news of the break-in at Ariana’s diamond boutique well was an understatement, but she had maintained face for a spell, at least until she was told that nothing was stolen.

At least nothing they had expected to be stolen.

Kit knew the truth, though. Every jewel and diamond had been left in place, even as their cases were broken and destroyed. Not even the cash in the register had been touched.

To the LAPD, it would have looked like an attempted robbery and nothing more, and it would to Carmen, as well, at least for a time.

That was why Kit had made sure Carmen didn’t learn about what happened to Ariana until after she was taken to the police station for questioning.

Sure, the questioning could have been done at the boutique—that was what protocol usually called for—but Kit had a man in the department who had smoothly talked Ariana into going down to the station for the questioning.

It was all going according to plan, and Kit should have been enjoying it, but the only thing he could think about was the divorce papers he’d found and the implications behind them.

Had he read her wrong?

Had she already made up her mind?

Kit thought he would go fucking crazy thinking about it.

“Nix!” Carmen snapped, glaring at him as she realized he wasn’t listening.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” Kit returned. “Nothing was stolen from the boutique.”

“Then what the hell is this all about?” she demanded, throwing her hands up as she paced a hole into the carpet. “If not for the jewels, then what?”

“I’m not sure,” Kit said, playing the game. “What could your daughter possess that an organized team would want? Nothing about the business, surely. You couldn’t possibly be that stupid to entrust anything to that daughter of yours.”

Carmen looked infuriated for a moment, at least until she gave what he was saying some thought. And right before his eyes, he saw the moment when she realized what had been taken. With that knowledge, her mood soured further.

Kit held a glass of brandy in one hand as he regarded the woman he had come to loathe entirely. “What was it? What did they take?”

Carmen opened her mouth to answer him, but before she spoke a word, she glanced around at the men who stood silently in the room then motioned at the door. “Leave us.”

Kit watched, unbothered, as they all ventured out. “Go on, then. What are you hiding?”

“No one could possibly know—”

“Let’s skip the dramatics, and you tell me what I want to know.”

Carmen ground her teeth together but withheld what she wanted to say and told him what he needed to know. “I needed information on my suppliers. I didn’t like the idea of them having more information on me than I had on them.”

“What do you have?”

“Shipping routes, their money launderers, and a few of the buildings they use down the coast. Just a few incriminating details, but no one knew I ever looked into them.”

“Not quite true, though, is it?” Kit said, tipping his glass to his lips to hide his smile. “Someone had to know what you were doing.”

He wouldn’t bother to mention that that someone was him.

Carmen looked worried for a moment before she gave a harsh shake of his head. “It doesn’t matter. There was not enough information in there to give the thieves anything of value.”

“Let’s hope so,” Kit said dryly.

“Enough of that. What do the law enforcement know?”

“There are no answers presently, but I’m sure the LAPD will have them soon enough.”

That earned a scowl from her, which was warranted. While there were plenty of good cops, the LAPD were wildly incompetent compared to what Kit could find in half the time.

“Where is my daughter?” Carmen demanded, calling her security back in.

She looked at her head of security, waiting for him to answer a question he hadn’t known she had asked.

“Well! Where is she?”

He quickly got the idea, but he didn’t have the answers. His mouth fell open, the answer escaping him—the man didn’t move until he was told, so how Carmen could have thought he would have any answers was beyond Kit.

“She’s at the police station,” Kit said, sparing the man any further embarrassment. “I’m sure once they’re finished with her, we’ll know.”

Carmen narrowed her eyes at him, her frustration mounting. “And why aren’t you there? The only thing you seem good for is sitting around doing nothing.”

Kit arched a brow. “I fail to see why I would need to be there. I abhor police stations, and I’d make a horrible lawyer.”

“You would be there because I say you should. You work for me. It’s clear that you need to be reminded of your place.”

“Let’s be honest, yes? I worked for your husband, and seeing as you’ve gotten rid of him, I now work for Elias, but this didn’t need to be said. You’re not daft, despite the way you look.”

Surprise flashed across every face in the room, but Carmen’s was the first to turn to anger.

No one talked back to her.

Most had been too afraid of angering her husband to ever speak out of turn, but now that he was gone, most were worried that in a fit of rage, she would have them killed just because she was in the mood.

Kit hated fucking tyrants.

His response rendered her mute and her surprise at his audacity was blatant on her face, but once she processed it, she stomped over to him, raising her hand as though she meant to strike him.

But before the palm of her hand could make contact with his cheek, however, Kit grabbed her wrist inches before she connected, still holding his drink in the other hand.

Keeping his hold on her, he set his glass down and got to his feet. He had played the dutiful soldier, making sure to bend to her every whim for over a year so that she never questioned what he did, but now—now, he was done playing the game.

“You’ll be wise to keep your hands to yourself,” he warned her, squeezing the delicate bones in her wrist until she winced.

She attempted to snatch her arm back, but he held fast, keeping her exactly where he wanted.

“Is that understood?”

Reluctantly, and though her eyes screamed murder, she gave the slightest of nods. Satisfied, he finally released her.

Carmen stepped back, never taking her eyes off him, but she didn’t speak another word as she spun around and left the room, her security following behind.

“Are you sure that was a good idea?” Aidra asked, looking from him to the door Carmen had just walked out of.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Kit said, sounding resigned. “It’s all about to end very soon.”

Aidra made a sound in the back of her throat.

“Spit it out.”

She frowned at his tone. “A bit in a mood, aren’t we?”

Kit poured himself another drink. “Perhaps.”

“Would you like to share, or should I leave you to it? You’re exhausting when you’re in one of your moods.”

“Luna had divorce papers.”

If he expected surprise or pity from Aidra, he didn’t get any. “What part of ‘I’m leaving you, and I never want to see you again,’ did you not understand? I would be more surprised if she didn’t have any, then what would all of this have been for?”

“This may come as a surprise for you, but your answer isn’t helpful.”

“May not have been what you wanted to hear, but it’s the truth all the same.”

Kit sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face. “This has all grown tiresome. I much preferred the way the Lotus Society handled things. It’s never this drawn out. We had a target, we neutralized it, and we went home. I think I lack the patience for this.”

Plucking the glass from his hand, she took a sip of his drink before screwing her nose up at the taste. “It’s not about how fast you get the job done, rather the endgame that you need to concentrate on.”

Kit smiled absently, vaguely remembering having told her something similar years prior. “And what is my endgame, Aidra?”

“Luna, obviously. Everyone has their reasons on this, but yours is simply getting your wife back. Which is terribly romantic—it’s almost like an elaborate form of courting.”

Kit laughed. “Is that what you think? I can’t get back something I’ve already lost, Aidra. You know this.”

She passed his drink back. “Despite how big and bad you think you are, Nix, Luna isn’t afraid of you. If she really wanted to divorce you, wouldn’t she have done it by now?”

“I saw the papers,” he reminded her.

“And her signature?”

Kit fell silent.

“She had to have signed them, no? For you to be acting like your world is ending.”

“Whether she signed them is immaterial.”

“D’you see what I mean? Exhausting. Nothing I say will convince you, so I’m not sure why you’re asking my opinion. Why don’t you just go talk to Luna?”

“Now isn’t—”

“Now isn’t a good time? Is that what you’re about to say? Because I’m sure that you—master assassin, and brother of the man who’s notorious for moving without being seen—can manage to have a private moment with your wife without anyone noticing.”

She patted his knee, as though she had been the one to teach him rather than the other way around.

“Thank you for your input.”

She waved his words away. “I live to serve.”

“What would I do without you, Aidra?” Kit asked, genuinely.

“You’d crash and burn, Nix. Now, I need to go check in with Fang and the boys. I’ll make sure you have an update before tomorrow’s events.”

Aidra was off then, leaving Kit to look after her until the door clicked shut and he was alone once more.

He wouldn’t have much time, to get her away from California, to spend time alone so that he could get the answers he sought.

Elias had eyes on him, but with Carmen probably having him doing her bidding at the moment, he would have enough time to slip away without him noticing.

First, he had a few calls to make.