Chapter 1: The Extraction "...left handprints around her throat?" I finished, my voice dropping to a gravelly whisper that seemed to freeze the air in the room. The ambient chatter of the Easter party outside the study door faded into a dull, meaningless hum.

Chapter 14: Cornered Animal

Desperation makes even the weakest men dangerous. Richard, his assets frozen, his friends gone, was hiding in a grimy safehouse provided by his last remaining corrupt lawyers. Digging into his final hidden emergency funds, he put out a massive three-million-dollar bounty on my head on the dark web.

Word on the encrypted wire was that a notorious freelancer named Silas took the contract. Silas wasn't a thug; he was a ghost story whispered in my old black-ops circles—a legendary sniper known for cold, brutal efficiency and an obsession with perfect kills.

I couldn't let Silas operate in the shadows and track me back to Texas. I had to dictate the battlefield and draw him out. I deliberately logged into one of Richard's old, compromised email accounts from a public Wi-Fi network at a café in downtown Chicago, leaving a bright, undeniable digital footprint. Then, I bought a cup of bitter black coffee, sat by the window, and waited in the crosshairs.