Damian stepped out of the hospital, feeling like a heel. He hadn’t lied — not exactly — but he’d told more than one lie of omission. The fact that it was to protect Aria hardly mattered.

She would be furious when she realized he’d left to get Gatti without her.

And he would be leaving. Cole had called as Damian was on his way into the hospital to tell him they’d gotten confirmation from their guy in Customs that Gatti had left that afternoon on a flight to Chiang Mai.

Wanting to see Aria before it got to be too late, he’d told Cole to meet him at the hospital. True to his word, he was leaning against Damian’s car when he started across the parking lot.

“What’s the word?” Damian asked when he was still a few feet away.

“Left on an Air Asia flight this afternoon at 3:02 p.m. If we leave within the next two hours, he’ll only be a few hours ahead of us,” Cole said.

“And we’re sure?” Damian asked.

“We’re sure,” Cole said. “Our guy sent me a screenshot of the manifest with Gatti’s name on it.”

“Any idea what he’s going to do in Thailand?” Damian asked.

“We have a few rumors,” Cole said. “We’re running them down now.”

Damian nodded. “Good.”

“What about Aria?” Cole asked.

Damian hesitated. He was tired of delivering bad news to Cole.

Tired of delivering bad news to everyone.

Reminding himself that it had only been six months since he was approached by Farrell to take back New York for the Syndicate did little to ease his frustration.

It felt like they’d been at war for a lifetime.

“I need you to stay,” Damian finally said.

Cole sighed, ran a hand through his hair as he turned away. Damian gave him a minute. Any other time, he would have laid down the law — brother or not, Cole worked for him.

It wasn’t Damian’s job to hold his hand.

But Cole had gone above and beyond the call of duty more than once in the past few months. He hadn’t signed onto a private security detail when he’d joined Damian in his bid for the New York territory — he’d signed on to be a soldier.

When he turned around to face Damian, his face was composed.

“Going to Chiang Mai alone is suicide.”

“I don’t think so,” Damian said.

“That's because I haven’t told you the details of some of the rumors we’re hearing on the street.”

“Which are?” Damian asked.

“One school of thought seems to be that Gatti is joining up with the Thai Mob,“ Cole said.

The words rang an alarm bell in Damian’s mind. Organized crime existed all over the world. Some of it was run like the Syndicate operations and Damian’s organization before he’d joined them. Others were small-time operations, unpredictable and dangerous, but without the organization and resources to do much damage.

And then there were territories like Thailand.

The Thai had never been under Syndicate rule, and Damian didn’t blame the Syndicate for steering clear — when it had been run by Raneiro Donati or now that it was run by Nico, Farrell, and the others.

The territory was profitable, but siezing it would be time consuming and deadly.

The Thai Mob was on the crazy side of unpredictable and the sadistic side of violent. They were isolated from organizations in other parts of the world, and except for a few minor conflicts, hadn’t posed a threat to those organizations.

They would kill an interloper without a second thought — even one like Damian who was connected to the Syndicate.

And it wouldn’t be a quick and painless death.

“That adds another element of danger,” Damian finally admitted.

“It’s more than danger,” Cole said. “You’ll be considered an emissary of the enemy. You’ll be dead as soon as they make you.”

Damian didn’t necessarily agree, but he needed to pick his battles.

“If that’s true, having one more person there won’t change anything,” he said. “But it will change something for Aria — it will leave her unprotected, and it will leave her alone if anything happens to me.”

“Dammit, Damian,” Cole muttered, pacing the blacktop. “This is crazy. Batshit insane.”

He’d never seen Cole so agitated. It wouldn’t do. Damian needed him calm and composed for Aria, because she was going to be royally pissed when she found out he’d gone to Thailand without her.

“Even so,” Damian said, “it has to be done.”

“Let me go,” Cole said. “You can stay here with Aria. I’ll take care of Gatti.”

Damian shook his head. “Can’t do it. It’s personal now. I need to see him dead myself. I need to be able to tell Aria that I saw it.”

“I think Aria would rather have you here and alive,” Cole said.

“Maybe on the surface,” Damian agreed. “But she’ll never really be able to move on until I can report personally on his death.”

He wasn’t entirely sure even his reporting would be enough for her. She was itching to see Malcolm die herself.

But Damian’s testimony was the closest thing they had to satisfactory.

Cole sighed. “I’ll do what you need me to do. You know that.”

Damian nodded. “I need you to stay here with Aria. I’d post you outside her room if I could get away with it, but it will draw too much attention from the nursing staff — attention we don’t need.”

“I’ll patrol out here, call in a couple other guys to watch the other entrances.”

It made Damian feel better to know Aria would be well covered, even though he doubted she was a target of Malcolm’s now that he was on his way to Thailand.

He rested a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “Thank you. I know you want to help. I need you to believe there’s no greater help you can provide right now than to keep Aria safe.”

Cole nodded. “When do you leave?”

Damian unlocked his car. “Now.”