Page 54 of Beautiful Ruins
I shook my head once.He was still staring at the door when I spoke.
“Watch yourself, Archie.”
He glanced at me, unrepentant.“She’s charming.”
“She’s dangerous,” I corrected.
“I’ve already experienced that family trait,” he breathed dryly.“And while I may be… mildly besotted… I’ve grown rather fond of my limbs.I don’t intend to lose any more of them.”
Despite myself, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch.
“Good.Let’s talk.”
We walked to my office.
Archie took a seat without being invited.He rested his cane across his knees and surveyed the room like it amused him to be here in my personal space.
“You called about the new outfit.”He got straight to the point.
“Yes.I need to know everything about them.”
“What’s your interest?”
“My interest,” I started, “is in keeping the streets of my city clean.It’s also about protecting those close to me.I believe they were responsible for a recent attack on one of my own.”
Archie drew in air, then let it out slowly.“They’re a relatively small, but ruthless outfit.They’re testing the waters in Siena.”
“They’ve already put hands on someone under my protection.So their testing is not off to a good start.”
His eyes sharpened.“I heard.”
I watched him carefully.“You hear everything.”
“Not everything,” he corrected lightly.“Just what matters.”
“Tell me about them.”
Archie leaned back slightly.“They’re new, but they’re not foolish.Extremely ruthless.Brutal.Not the sort of people you want in your city.”
My jaw tightened.
“Who runs the outfit?”
“Cenk Chernov.”
The name checked out.It was the same one Navarro Nato had scrawled across that blank card earlier today, the ink still fresh in my mind.That alone told me Archie wasn’t bluffing.He knew exactly who he was talking about.
The problem was, the name didn’t come with anything else.
No trail.No noise.No digital footprint worth dissecting.I’d pulled every string I could think of, combed through every channel available to me, and still come up empty-handed.Not even a rumour solid enough to repeat.
Just a name.A nationality.And silence.The kind that happens by design.
“And who exactly is Cenk Chernov?”I pressed.
Archie’s expression remained stoic.
“A man who isn’t interested in diplomacy.He’s interested only in dominance, no matter how it comes about.”
