Page 76 of Shadow

“What plan? You keep saying wait.”

“Wait until closer to testimony. Wait until the moment has maximum impact. Wait until we can eliminate them and make it look like operational failure instead of a syndicate hit.” Asher held Dmitri’s gaze. “You want them dead in a way that doesn’t bring heat. That doesn’t expose your network.”

Dmitri drew on his cigarette. Exhaled slowly. Smoke drifted through the yellow light. He nodded once. “Draven wants a timeline.”

“Give me two weeks.”

Dmitri flicked ash onto the concrete floor. Watched it fall. Watched Asher. “You’ve got two weeks. Then we move, with or without your say.”

Not the time Asher needed. But better than tomorrow.

“Fine. But you stay away from Aspen Ridge. No surveillance. No drive-bys. No more accidents. You spook them, they move, and I’m out.”

Dmitri took a long, final drag. Dropped the cigarette. Ground it out with his boot heel. Nodded. “But if you’re playing us—if you’re actually protecting these witnesses—Draven won’t just kill you. He’ll kill everyone you’ve ever cared about.”

The threat hung in the cold air.

Asher smiled. Dark. Humorless. “Good thing I don’t care about anyone, then.”

He turned and walked away, not running, just an easy walk out, no problem.

He shoved through the door, the rain now a drizzle, and nearly gulped the fresh November air after the stale warehouse smell.

His car was parked down the weedy lot, in the gloom. He got in and started the engine, blasted the heat.

It didn’t touch the cold that had settled in his chest.

He pulled away with gravel crunching under tires and headlights cutting through darkness.

Two weeks.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel, the burned skin raw.

He shouldn’t have left her.

More, he was compromising their mission with every day he kept his backstory in shadow.

That yes, he needed his reputation as a corrupt FBI agent—the one that bought him clout with the syndicate. And wasn’t it at least a little true? He’d helped the syndicate escape the FBI more than once. For the good of the case. And because in his gut, he suspected there was someone pulling even Draven’s strings. So he’d stayed in the game.

Watched them do terrible things. Like distribute Neurosync throughout the community (although he had helped thwart a shipment and assisted in the takedown of dealers at a kids’ camp). And they’d left more than one dead body in their wake—bodies of people he should have protected (although most of them he didn’t know until after the fact).

The bottom line was, he’d let them get away with just enough to buy his cover. But it still left dirt on his soul. Like those kids at the diner—his fault, in a way.

All because he was hunting the head of the snake, the one who’d started back in Denver, some thirty years ago.

The one who had ignited the gang war that got Gemma killed.

So, that was a lot of backstory that probably Daphne should know, right?

But now, he’d snuck away. And he’d have to lie to her again if she asked.

Because the mission wasn’t over. And if she knew he was now tasked to eliminate Destiny and Roger…

Yeah, he wouldn’t trust him either.

Still. He needed to hear her voice.

Make sure she was okay.