"It’s the White Serpent Brotherhood!"

Gustav and Lukas furrowed their brows as they glanced at each other. A moment later, their eyes fell on Gin, who was visibly winded from sprinting to the office.

"Gin, drink a glass of water," Gustav said. "We’ll hear this out right after."

Gin nodded and marched outside, the duo following behind him. On the way, he grabbed a bottle of water from a stand in the hallway and took a few long gulps.

Once they reached his office, he settled into his seat while Gustav and Lukas stood behind him.

"New reports just came in," Gin began. "According to the police, someone called in and gave tips about the other locations."

After all, Mole Guy’s remains had been spread across different locations. Each body part had coordinates drawn on its skin, and before the police could piece it all together, anonymous tips had already been sent to stations in various areas, pointing them toward the other parts.

Sure enough, the police would arrive at each location and find a human body part waiting.

For the entire day, police departments across different areas had been busy coordinating with one another, as they had no identity for the man.

Gin’s initial plan had been to bait whoever came to retrieve the remains. The underground was a violent place, but many of its people followed a code. And sometimes, recovering a fallen colleague was just as important as anything else.

He had been counting on someone to come for the remains. With Lucian’s approval, he had stationed people to watch the locations for any sign of movement.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that the people he was trying to bait were just as clever, using the coordinates themselves to tip off the police about the pieces.

"But even after the coordinates were given, and the police managed to retrieve the pieces," Gin continued, "someone called in claiming to be a family member of the deceased."

Gin paused and looked up at Gustav and Lukas.

Gustav had his hand resting on the edge of the desk, one brow raised. His eyes lingered on Gin before he straightened.

"And they were part of the White Serpent?"

Gin shook his head. "No — he’s actually a biological cousin. And he’s not part of any organization. He lives a normal life, well within the law."

"What about it?" Lukas frowned. "Gin, just get to the point."

"The thing is, the people we sent to look into him found something," Gin said, pulling up tabs on his screen. "They confirmed that the person trying to retrieve the body is a real cousin. But in the days prior, he’d been caught acting strangely."

"Just hours after we recovered the madam, things were already moving on the other side," he explained, his voice grave. "And here — this is footage of the cousin. He was showing up in places he’d have no reason to visit, considering the gang activity in those areas."

Footage of the man appeared on the screen.

"Not to mention, based on the timestamps, the amount of time he spent there was short — but long enough to receive orders, if that was the case," he continued. "We confirmed the locations and the particular establishments he was seen entering and leaving."

"We confirmed two things from these," he said, pausing to hit Enter and pull up another clip of the cousin at a payphone.

"First, this cousin is the one who tipped off the police." Gin glanced between the two men before turning back to the monitor.

He typed again and brought up something new. "And second, this particular establishment is run by a gang. A gang that the White Serpent Brotherhood has recently absorbed."

"I double-checked, and I realized the locations where the madam told me to scatter the remains all fall within territories controlled by gangs that recently aligned themselves with the White Serpents," Gin added quietly, leaning back in his chair.

He looked up at Gustav and Lukas.

"Sir... it appears the White Serpents truly want a war with Dominion."

*****

[Dominion New Neighborhood]

"Did it reopen?" Ashley asked, glancing over her shoulder as Lucian tended to her wound.

He sat behind her on the bed, holding a cotton swab and carefully applying Betadine.

"No," he said, giving her a knowing look. "I was careful."

She chuckled. "You were."

No matter how intense things got, Lucian never forgot about the wound on her back. It was almost remarkable how he could consciously keep it in mind when she herself had completely forgotten about it.

A quiet settled over the room as Lucian covered her wound. Ashley’s brows rose slightly, her gaze drifting toward his phone on the bedside table.

The screen lit up, then went dark, but not before she caught the string of missed calls from Gustav. When it lit up again, she looked at him.

"You should answer that," she said. "It might be important."

Lucian didn’t pause as he placed the last strip of tape over her bandage. "Might be."

After all, Gustav only bombarded his phone when something significant came up. But right now, was there anything more important than this time with her?

Right now, it was just the two of them in this room, and everything outside had ceased to matter. If he had to choose, he wanted to stay in this little world they had built, even if only for a moment longer.

For once in his life, he wanted to choose something selfish.

For himself — not for Dominion, not for anything else.

"Done," he said, straightening as she turned to face him.

Without a word, Lucian studied her face. He leaned in and kissed her softly. When he drew back, he brushed her cheek with his thumb.

"Hungry?"

Ashley smacked her lips, only to get distracted when his phone lit up again. She glanced at it, and Lucian followed her gaze.

"Don’t worry about it," he said, watching her look back at him. "They probably got a lead on whoever was behind the abduction."

"Huh?" she blinked. "Then shouldn’t you answer it?"

Lucian drew a slow breath and leaned back, resting his hands on the mattress. "I called in sick."

"..." Ashley blinked, reminding herself she shouldn’t be surprised that Lucian already had a sense of why Gustav was calling so relentlessly. This was Lucian; he knew his people all too well.

"What I’m more curious about," he hummed, lowering his gaze to hers, "is what you want me to do with them."