My father taught me one thing before he disappeared from my life entirely: the man who strikes second strikes harder, because he knows exactly where the first blow landed.
I built my entire adult life on that principle. I never struck first against Marcus Decker. Not against the Dusk Riders. Not against the smaller operations I absorbed before Faye entered my orbit. I waited. I mapped. I let the first move reveal everything about the one making it, then I struck with full knowledge.
Anton Reves just struck first.
He killed Douglas Harmon, his own partner, the architect of his financial network. That act is not simple ruthlessness. It is declaration. He no longer needs Harmon’s structure. Which means he no longer needs the old financial system Faye’s records document.
That changes every
