Chapter 33 · Old Friends, New Blood

"You have three seconds to tell me where Leo is." Reid drove the knife into the table beside the Boss's hand. "Then I start taking answers out of you."

The Boss didn't look at the blade. He looked at Reid's fingers, then at the black veins crawling beneath Reid's wrist.

"Still counting like a soldier," he said. "One. Two—"

Reid grabbed the front of his coat and slammed him against the brick wall. The old room shook. Dust dropped from the pipes overhead.

"Don't play with me."

The Boss smiled.

That smile hit harder than the wall ever could.

Reid knew that face. Not the gray hair or the expensive coat. Not the polished teeth and the little silver scar beside his mouth. He knew the way the man watched a room, measuring exits, weapons, weaknesses.

He had taught Reid to do that.

"Three," the Boss finished. "You always were impatient, Cross."

Reid's grip tightened until the coat's collar cut into the man's throat. "Say my name again."

"Reid."

The Veil Current stirred under Reid's skin. The lights above them popped one after another. The air snapped cold against his knuckles.

The Boss finally glanced at the knife.