**
The night before I flew to Lisbon to steal 2.7 billion dollars, I couldn't sleep.
The hotel in New York was too quiet.
Big bed.
City lights blinking outside the window.
Richard's ring on the nightstand staring at me like it knew I was about to do something stupid.
I needed noise.
Needed people.
Needed something to shut my brain up.
So I went down to the rooftop bar of the Grand Meridian.
Place was fancy as hell.
Gold lights.
Rich people laughing too loud.
Music soft and slow.
I wore all black.
No suit tonight.
Just black hoodie, black jeans, black boots.
Cap low so nobody saw my eyes.
I slid onto a stool at the end of the bar.
The bartender was a girl.
Light skin.
Curly hair tied up messy.
Big brown eyes that looked like they already knew every lie a man ever told.
Body curved in all the right places.
White crop top.
Tight jeans.
Name tag said **Katie**.
She looked at me once and smirked.
"What's your poison, pretty boy with the sad eyes?"
I almost smiled.
Nobody ever talked to me like that.
"Whiskey. Neat. Double."
She poured it smooth.
Slid the glass over.
"Rough day?"
"Rough life."
She laughed.
Sound hit me in the chest like a bullet I didn't dodge.
"I feel that. I'm Katie."
"Sam."
No last name.
Never a last name.
She leaned on the bar, arms crossed, pushing everything up in a way that made my mouth dry.
"You don't look like you belong in a place like this, Sam."
"I don't belong anywhere."
Her eyes softened for half a second.
Then she went back to tough girl.
"Story of my life. Another?"
I nodded.
We talked.
Not about jobs or blood or dead fathers.
Just dumb shit.
She was twenty-one.
Art student by day.
Bartender by night.
Paying for school herself.
Hated rich guys who tipped with their daddy's black card.
I laughed.
First real laugh in forever.
"You hate me then. I'm rich now."
She raised an eyebrow.
"You don't act rich. Rich guys grab my ass and call me baby.
You just sit there looking like someone killed your dog."
"Someone did."
She went quiet.
Then poured me another.
On the house.
Hours passed.
Bar started emptying.
I kept drinking slow.
Didn't want to leave.
She kept talking.
Told me about her mom who left when she was six.
About painting murals on abandoned buildings at 3 a.m.
About wanting to see Paris one day.
I told her nothing real.
But I told her things I never told anyone.
Like how I hate sleeping alone.
How I still check under the bed sometimes.
How I keep a ring that doesn't fit anymore because it's the only thing left of someone who loved me.
She listened like she actually cared.
Last call came.
Lights came up.
Only three people left.
All drunk.
All gone.
It was just us.
She started wiping the bar.
I stood up to leave.
She looked up.
"Hey, Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"You got a phone that works?"
I pulled it out.
She took it.
Typed fast.
Sent herself a text from my phone.
"Now you can't ghost me."
I stared at the screen.
**Katie 🍑**
with a peach emoji.
I laughed again.
Couldn't help it.
"You don't even know me."
"I know enough.
You've got sad eyes and you tip five hundred dollars on a thirty-dollar tab.
That's a start."
I looked at the empty glass.
Then at her.
"I'm leaving tomorrow.
Might not come back."
She shrugged.
But her eyes said something different.
"Then come back."
I walked to the elevator.
Heart beating too fast.
She called after me.
"Sam!"
I turned.
"If you die out there… text me first.
I wanna know why those eyes look so tired."
Elevator doors closed.
I stood there staring at my reflection.
For the first time in fourteen years, I was scared.
Not of dying.
Of never seeing her again.
Next day I flew to Lisbon.
Killed fourteen men.
Took the wallet.
Became a billionaire.
But every time I blinked, I saw her face.
Katie.
The girl who called me pretty boy.
The girl who made me laugh.
The girl who had no idea she just became the most dangerous thing in my life.
Because now I had something to lose.
And monsters who have something to lose…
they fight different.
They fight dirty.
They fight to win.
I landed back in New York three days later.
2.7 billion richer.
Whole world hunting me.
First thing I did?
Opened my phone.
Typed one message.
**Sam:**
Still alive.
Dinner tomorrow?
Three dots appeared.
**Katie 🍑:**
Only if you tell me why you look like you're carrying the world.
**Sam:**
Deal.
I stared at the screen.
Smiled like an idiot.
Then I remembered Scar Man's last words.
**Volkov sends his love.**
I closed the phone.
Put Richard's ring on my finger.
Looked out the window at the city that used to be Richard's.
Soon it would be mine.
All of it.
But first…
dinner with a girl who had no idea she just walked into a war.
And I was gonna burn the whole world down before I let anyone touch her.
Starting with the Volkovs.