Grey stood at the front of the large conference room. The women and men who sat at the table were the heart and soul of the organization. He had a working knowledge of all the cases the team handled, but they were the ones who did the actual labor. Without them, justice, for many, would never be obtained.

Each person could choose his or her own case or have one assigned. One or two team members worked the case until justice had been served. On occasion, more people were involved, and yes, on occasion, laws were skirted or bypassed. Rarely did a case require significant laws to be broken. He might not be a stickler for following rules, but he damn well would not allow his people to put themselves or their families in jeopardy. He would take the fall before any of his people did. His neck was the only one he was willing to risk.

They were from all walks of life. College professors worked right along with stay-at-home moms and dads, and fast-food employees worked beside CEOs of multimillion-dollar companies. Most didn’t work for the group full time but worked when they could. They had myriad differences and experiences, but the one thing they all had in common was a fierce belief in fairness. Each one had experienced or seen injustice. Grey had recruited them, carefully vetted them. He would trust them with his life, but more important, he trusted them to accomplish what often seemed impossible.

His time was divided between his companies and his victims advocacy group, but he had multiple people who managed these interests. The Grey Justice Group was his passion. He had come from a long line of justice seekers. At one time, he had thought to ignore his heritage. Pursuing justice often led to heartbreak and even death. It certainly had in his parents’ case. It hadn’t taken long for him to change his mind. How could he live with himself if he allowed lives to be ruined or criminals to flourish? He couldn’t—not when he could do something to stop it.

He had no superpowers, but he was a good judge of character. That, along with a keen sense of right and wrong, had guided him to his inevitable destiny. His parents would be in equal parts sad and proud that he had followed in their footsteps. They hadn’t necessarily wanted this for him, but had trained him in case he chose this life.

He had made his choices and had few regrets. However, there were drawbacks.

“Thank you all for coming today. I know many of you have other obligations, so I won’t delay any longer. As you know, last night an attempt was made on my life. Many of you know Lacey Slater. She was in the car with me and is in serious condition. The doctors expect a full recovery, but she has a long road ahead of her.”

That Lacey had been injured because of him was something he deeply regretted. He should have found her another ride. No, he hadn’t anticipated an assassination attempt, but in his line of work, it was inevitable. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

“Since the shooter’s mission was not accomplished, I anticipate more attempts. When I started this group, I promised myself to put no one, other than myself, at risk. I haven’t always been able to keep that promise. Several of you have faced danger and probably will again. But this situation is entirely different. Someone is personally targeting me, and I don’t want anyone to get caught in the cross hairs. This is my battle to fight.

“Outside of this room, this group is known to only a few. I trust them, as I trust you. However, that doesn’t mean someone can’t or won’t find a way inside. My primary concern is making sure all my employees stay safe. I’d like for all of you to give this some careful consideration. If you feel the need to back off for a while, I completely understand. I—”

“Excuse me, Grey. But I feel I need to say something before you finish.”

Unsurprised by the interruption, but more than a little shocked at who’d spoken, Grey shifted his gaze to Mrs. Eugenia Wilcox. The elderly woman had been working with the Grey Justice Group for a little over a year. She was eighty-six years old, and although she was quite opinionated, she wasn’t one to speak her concerns aloud in a large audience.

More than a little curious to hear what she had to say, he gave her a nod of encouragement. “Please do.”

“I think we can all agree that we don’t do this job because it’s safe. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. Some low-life sleazebag is not going to stop me.”

There were several “hear, hears,” and then the entire room burst into applause.

Grey nodded his appreciation. “Thank you. I appreciate all of you and your work. Again, I don’t believe anyone who works for any Grey Justice entity will be targeted, but take extra care just in case.” He glanced over at Gallagher, standing a few feet away. “Nick is going to give you some safety tips and answer any of your questions. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Grey walked out of the room, confident that Nick would give sound advice and alleviate concerns. The thought of another person being hurt because of him was a sickening prospect.

He went into his office and strode over to the far wall. He pressed a small panel, which opened to reveal an entry scanner. Placing his thumb on the pad, he heard a small click, followed by the door opening. Only his and Irelyn’s thumbprints were coded into the system.

Once inside, he opened the laptop at his desk. He had five investigators digging into the assassination attempt, but that wouldn’t stop him from doing his own research, too. Someone he knew, possibly did business with, wanted him dead.

Setting up for a kill took time. A skilled assassin could set up and tear down a shoot within a minute or two. However, the target had to be located first. He had gone in the opposite direction of his normal route to take Lacey to her apartment. Someone at the event had seen him with her and deduced that he was taking her home first. Additionally, this person or persons also knew where Lacey lived.

Grey wasn’t naïve. Many people hated him. One didn’t achieve money, influence, and power without making multiple enemies. And being someone who didn’t put up with a lot of bullshit had landed him on several “least favorite” lists. How many of those people would spend the money to hire a professional hit man? Not that many, which made identifying the bastard a little easier.

In the past, he’d been targeted, but most times it had been by lowlifes who’d hired local thugs. This had been a professional. Just because the bastard had missed didn’t mean he wasn’t good at his job. Grey knew exactly what happened. He had swerved at the last moment. If not, he and possibly Lacy, too, would be lying in a morgue.

The assassin would search for another way to get to him, possibly using those he cared about to lure him.

Having acquaintances and contacts on both sides of the law had its rewards. One being that, in many things, he was in the know almost from the moment a decision was made. Few knew how high or how low his contacts stretched. Each had their advantages, but trust in them went only so far.

Over the years, he had found more people he could rely on. Some of them he could even call friends. But there was only one person he had total faith and trust in. He no longer questioned the oddity of that uncompromising faith. Irelyn Raine was many things, and loyalty was at the top of the list. Considering how they’d begun their relationship, she should be the last person he trusted. But Irelyn had proven herself a thousand times over. He no longer doubted her.

Irelyn.

Grey expelled a disgusted sigh. He’d messed up again. Instead of having a conversation with her, possibly getting her agreement to come home, he’d handled it wrong. His only thought was to protect her. Irelyn didn’t do anything halfway. If she got involved, she wouldn’t stop until the culprit was identified. And then, she would go further. It was the further part that bothered him. He’d do anything to protect her, including alienating her. But he’d hurt her again, and that hadn’t been his intent.

Yes, he could call a half-dozen people who would tell him where she had been or where she was headed. A couple could even pinpoint her location right now. If it came to that, he would do it. Yeah, it’d piss her off, but when it came to her life, he didn’t give two shits about pissing her off. A pissed-off Irelyn was a damn sight better than a dead one.

For now, he had an enemy to identify.

Sitting at his desk, he reviewed the names of the people who had attended the awards party last night. Grey judged that it was a good twenty minutes from the time he’d offered Lacey a ride home to when they’d left. Plenty of time for someone to notify the shooter so he could get to another location.

Just over five hundred people attended the event, not counting the wait staff. Most of them could be eliminated from the suspect list in a matter of moments, but that still left a lot of people to research. At the top of that list was Joe Morrissey. He’d been the one to deliberately seek Grey out. Had he done so with the intent to delay him? That was something he intended to find out.

Though Morrissey was at the top, he was just one of many who would need to be checked out. With a resigned shrug, he divided the names up and sent the lists to his investigators.

His personal cellphone chimed, and his heart went into overdrive when he saw the caller was Kathleen Slater, Eli’s wife. Clicking on the answer icon, he said, “What’s happened?”

“Lacey’s awake.”

Grey allowed himself a giant, relieved sigh. He had stayed all night at the hospital with the Slaters. The doctors had advised them that the surgery to repair her internal bleeding had been successful, but the next few hours would be critical. Lacey finally waking up was a huge step.

“Is she able to talk?”

“Not yet. She’s still intubated and pretty groggy. They’ll take the tube out soon, but said she’d be in and out of consciousness for the next twenty-four hours.”

“How’s the family holding up?”

“We finally convinced Eleanor to go home and rest. Jonah and Gabby are with her. Eli and I are heading home. We’ll spend some time with the kids and then head back to the hospital.”

“I’ll come by this evening.”

“Wyatt Kingston is here.”

Her careful tone told him more than the words. Grey had called the man himself and told him about the accident. Even though Kingston had been in Frankfurt, Germany, Grey wasn’t surprised that he’d flown home immediately. The on-again-off-again relationship between Lacey and Kingston was no longer a secret to her family. Not that it would have mattered. He knew Wyatt well enough to know that nothing would stop him if he thought Lacey needed him, including the disapproval of her overprotective brothers.

“Everyone getting along?”

“So far, so good. I think he’s going to want to be in on the investigation.”

“I’m sure he will. Thanks for the update. I’ll see you soon.”

Grey ended the call and leaned back in his chair. He was tired, but figured he had a few more hours left in him. He clicked on the list of names again, making notes as he went through them. Which one of them hated him enough to pay big bucks to take him out? There were plenty on the list who likely hated him, but who had taken it to the next level?

The intercom on his desk buzzed. He pressed a button. “Yes?”

“It’s Nick. We need to talk.”

“Be right out.” He sprang out of his chair and headed to the door. The instant he saw who was waiting with Nick, he knew he wasn’t going to like the news. Charlotte “Charlie” Nolan was his top tech analyst. If she had something to tell him, he knew it was big.

“What’s wrong?”

“Have you talked to Irelyn lately?” Gallagher asked.

“Yes. A few hours ago. Why?”

“She give you any indication what she’s been up to?”

“Spit it out. What’s going on?”

Gallagher shot a glance at Charlie. She nodded and said, “You asked me to keep an eye on Hill House. Let you know of any new activity.”

“Yes.”

“They’ve added a new assassin. Our sources say she’s been working for them for a few weeks now.”

An ominous dread filled him, and he knew the answer before he asked, “She?”

“Irelyn Raine is Hill House’s newest assassin.”

No one spoke for several seconds and Grey appreciated the silence. However, dropping a bombshell of this magnitude on him would require more than a few seconds of thought. That would have to come later. For now, he needed details.

“Tell me what you know.”

“The new proprietor of Hill House is Sebastian Dark. Not much is known about him before he began his training at Hill House. We do know that he was a teenager when he arrived and has been a contract killer for a dozen or more years,” Gallagher said.

“Hill Reed, the previous proprietor, died without naming his successor. Guess the asshole thought he’d live forever.”

Grey had often wondered about Reed’s shortsightedness of never designating his future replacement. Admittedly, the bastard hadn’t planned on dying that soon—he’d only been in his early sixties. He definitely hadn’t planned on being outsmarted and betrayed by one of the few people he still trusted. But having lived, eaten, and breathed death for so long, he should have been aware of his own mortality.

“After Reed’s death, his assassins scattered like cockroaches,” Gallagher went on. “The only ones left vied to take over Hill House. After several months and more than a few dead bodies floating in the Thames, Dark came out the victor.”

Much of what Gallagher had learned, Grey already knew. Hill Reed’s successor hadn’t yet attained the status his predecessor had achieved. And likely never would.

It was a testament to Nick Gallagher’s restraint that he could speak of Hill Reed in such a dispassionate tone. Mathias and Adam Slater had hired Reed to kill Thomas O’Connell, Gallagher’s best friend and Kennedy’s late husband.

Gallagher continued in the same even tone, “Rumor has it that Dark isn’t the leader that his predecessor was. Doesn’t inspire the following or have the training skills that Reed apparently possessed.”

That was no surprise either. Not only had Hill Reed been a ruthless killer, he had been a skilled manipulator, a real-life Svengali who was a master at reading people and exploiting any detected vulnerability to gain what he wanted.

Grey had never doubted the existence of God, nor did he doubt the existence of the devil. He had seen evidence of both. Unfortunately, in his line of work, he saw evil much more often than good. In his expert opinion, Hill Reed had been, at the very least, one of Satan’s most evil minions. He could not regret for one moment that the bastard was in hell where he belonged.

“How many assassins does Dark have in his employ?” Grey asked.

“Hard to say,” Charlie answered. “Rumor has it that it’s as many as twenty. Some say they’ve heard upwards of fifty, and one or two sources have said no more than five.”

And now he had one more.

“Where do we go from here?” Gallagher asked.

“We wait. Watch it play out.”

“Why would Irelyn associate herself with—”

Gallagher stopped when Grey held up his hand. Giving his tech analyst an apologetic smile, he said, “Charlie, while I trust you completely, I need to talk to Nick alone.”

Giving both men a concerned glance, she stood. “No problem. Let me know what else you want me—”

“Just keep digging. The more we know, the better off we are.”

“Will do.”

Grey waited until the door closed and turned to Gallagher. “There are things you don’t know. Things I don’t have the right to tell you. And, admittedly, things I don’t want you to know. But there’s one thing I do know and want you to understand. I know Irelyn Raine, inside and out. I trust her with my life. I don’t know why she’s doing this, but I do know she’s got a plan.”

“A plan for what?”

He had no clue. Her insistence that they end their relationship had taken on a whole new meaning. Why hadn’t he pressed her for more details? The excuse that she had hurt him was beyond ludicrous. His emotions were secondary to making sure Irelyn stayed safe. And now, for reasons known only to Irelyn herself, she was back in the devil’s den.

Hell, Irelyn, what are you thinking, baby?