Cole’s POV
Patience.
That was the lesson drilled into me since I could walk, since I first sat at my father’s table and watched him carve up the city with a smile. Patience wins wars, he used to say. Wait. Watch. Let your enemy slip, and then you strike where it hurts most.
But Adrian Blackwood was testing the limits of my patience.
The bastard moved like a shadow, striking before anyone realized he was there. He didn’t make mistakes. And worst of all—he had her.
Sophie Hart.
I shouldn’t care. She was supposed to be a pawn, a tool to wedge between me and Blackwood until the cracks showed. But pawns weren’t supposed to have fire in their eyes. They weren’t supposed to stand straight while surrounded by wolves, or look at me like I wasn’t the devil whispering in their ear.
The first n
