The weight of his words pressed down on my chest like a stone.
Another body. Buried deeper.
I kept my expression neutral, but my mind raced. This changed everything. The first body was already a mystery, an unspoken threat lurking beneath the surface. But two? That meant something darker. Something deliberate.
Nicholas stood beside me, his posture stiff, his sharp gaze locked onto the man who had delivered the news. I had seen men like him before—men who wielded power like a second skin. They never revealed their thoughts unless it benefited them. And Nicholas… he was a master at it. But I noticed the slight tension in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched before he stilled them.
He wasn’t unaffected.
“Where exactly?” His voice was controlled, but I heard the steel underneath.
The ma
