Aria stood in the shadow of a building on the corner, watching the nondescript door that led to Velvet. Night was falling, the winter twilight gray and muddy as people hurried home from work. Now that she was here, a lead boulder sat in her stomach, her boots frozen to the pavement.

The car had been five minutes late but it hadn’t mattered. The road behind the Cavallo estate was barren; not a single car had passed before the Prius that had finally arrived to pick her up.

Her driver had been an Iranian man named Farhad with kind eyes and a fascinating story. She’d been relieved to sit in the back and listen to the tale of his life in Iran, the advanced engineering degree that had done him no good in America, his love of a new country he wasn’t sure loved him back.

She’d had him drop her uptown and gave him a big tip with the credit card, her heart heavy as she’d made her way to the subway. Why did life have to be so hard? It was impossible to ignore the fact that she had been luckier than most and she let her mind wander the possibilities of making it easier for others when this was all over.

Maybe she could band together with Angel and contribute to important causes or get involved at the shelter to help women and children like Damian and his mother. Or maybe she could start something of her own, find a way to leave the world a better place for the people like Farhad who couldn't seem to catch a break.

Whatever she did, it would be good, she promised herself. She wouldn’t take without giving anymore. It was a violation of the human contract. She saw that now.

But that was for later. She still had to get through today. Had to make sure she and Damian would be safe in order to do any good.

She forced herself to focus on the task at hand, her gaze resting on the two guards in front of Velvet. She didn’t recognize them and she wondered if they were new, if they were Anastos’s men.

Fear fought its way up her throat. She’d been dealing with her trauma from the kidnapping in Greece, opening up to Damian when it came back to haunt her, but the thought of being in close proximity to the people responsible for her imprisonment was still terrifying.

She’d planned to stay outside, to watch from afar, but now she couldn’t help but debate the merit of trying to get into the club. How could she see anything from the street? How could she know for sure that Malcolm Gatti was dead?

She didn’t think about Primo. She knew he would probably die with Malcolm, but actually thinking about it was too much to bear.

One step at a time.

She was still debating the merit of trying to talk her way into the club when she spotted two men approaching from the corner.

She recognized Damian immediately.

It wasn’t his face, which she couldn’t see clearly in the twilight. It was the way he walked, the combination of raw magnetism and confidence that had first drawn her to him.

Cole kept stride next to him. They both had their hands in their pockets, their footsteps fast and sure as they approached the guards in front of Velvet, not a moment’s hesitation as they came upon the two men and removed their hands from their jackets.

She barely had time to register that the guards were reaching for their weapons when Damian and Cole shot them point blank in the head. There was no sound and Aria assumed the guns were outfitted with silencers as the bodies dropped to the pavement.

Cole kicked open the door to the club and he and Damian dragged the guards into the stairwell’s vestibule. The door shut behind them, leaving the pavement clear except for two smudges of blood that would easily pass for typical city grime to anyone passing by.

The whole thing had taken less than thirty seconds.

She looked around, noticing that the street was eerily empty, the earlier crowd suddenly gone. A plastic shopping bag rolled down the sidewalk in front of the club, a modern tumbleweed on the concrete.

She was still pondering the strange circumstance when she felt a hand come around her mouth from behind, a strong arm lifting her off the ground, pulling her farther back into the shadows.

Then she was back in the apartment in Athens, trying desperately to be heard and knowing no one could hear her scream.