“I did not follow you to bring you back to Chicago,” Marcus said.

I stared at him, trying to find the lie in his dark eyes.

He had always been a master of deception, hiding his moves three steps ahead.

“Then why are you here?” I asked.

“Because leaving with nothing makes you target,” he said.

He opened the folder, revealing several pages of thick, white paper bound by a blue legal seal.

“If you disappear into the wind, my enemies will look for you,” Marcus said.

“They will think you are a weakness they can use against me.”

“But if you have your own teeth, they will leave you alone.”

Luca lowered the gun slightly, his brow furrowing.

“What is that?” Luca asked, gesturing at the documents.

“It is the deed to the Michigan lake house,” Marcus said.

“It is the ownership papers for the commercial real estate trust in the Loop.”

“And the offshore accounts in Grand Cayman.”

He looked at me, his expression flat and unreadable.

“Everything that is clean, Elena,” he said.

“Every dollar that has been washed through legitimate banks and corporate holdings.”