Chapter Eighty-Six
* Calls and Consequences*
The bar was dim and nearly empty. It was too early for the night crowd, too late for the lunch rush. It was the perfect place for a man nursing a grudge and a single malt whiskey. Axel Lax sat in a corner booth, the ice in his glass slowly melting as he stared at his phone.
On the screen was a contact, newly saved. Naomi Louis. The name was like a bitter taste in his mouth. The woman was a common forger, a social climber with the subtlety of a hammer. But she was also a weapon. A specific, hate-filled weapon aimed directly at his brother’s greatest vulnerability: Lyra.
He thought of her hissed offer at the end of that disastrous dinner, after everyone had left. She’d slipped him a card. "When you’re tired of losing to him, call. I know where
