Briggs felt every pair of eyes watching him. Judging him. Waiting to see what he would do. And Briggs hated feeling judged. Especially by a stranger. Especially by an old woman.

The dive bar on the edge of the docks smelled of stale beer, motor oil, and desperate men. It was a far cry from the champagne and caviar of the Sterling Gallery, but Elias Vance was a desperate man. Stripped of his title, his wealth, and his dignity in a matter of minutes, he had spent the last forty-eight hours drowning in cheap whiskey and seething rage.

He sat in a dark corner booth, nursing a glass of amber liquid, waiting.

A shadow detached itself from the gloom and slid into the booth across from him. The man wore a heavy leather jacket, his face obscured by the brim of a low-pulled baseball cap. His name was Kael, a fixer for the local syndicate. If you needed someone intimidated, ruined, or erased, Kael was the man you paid.

"You look like a corpse, Vance," Kael grunted, signaling the bartender for a drink. "Word on the street is you got publicly neutered by a grandmother."

Vance’s jaw clenched. "She’s not just a grandmother. She’s Beatrice Sterling. And the man with her is some kind of monster."

"Silas," Kael said, his tone shifting. The amusement vanished from his voice. "Yeah, I know the name. Ex-military. Black ops. He’s the reason Sterling hasn't been assassinated by her corporate rivals. He’s a ghost, and a lethal one. Why are you calling me, Vance?"

"Because I want her dead," Vance hissed, leaning across the sticky table. "She froze my accounts. She’s auditing the gallery. If her accountants find the money I’ve been skimming, I’ll spend the rest of my life in a federal penitentiary. I need her gone before the audit finishes."

Kael laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "You can't afford me to take out a billionaire and her pet terminator. You have nothing."

"I have the codes," Vance whispered, his eyes wide with manic desperation. "The master security codes to the Sterling Estate in the Hamptons. That’s where she’s staying. And she has a private vault in the basement. Unregistered bearer bonds, diamonds, cash. Millions. You take her out, you get the vault."

Kael paused. The offer was incredibly dangerous, but the payout was astronomical. He looked at Vance, weighing the odds. "I'll need a full tactical team. EMP charges to kill the cameras. And if Silas is there, it's going to be a bloodbath."