“Get her away from me!” Marco screamed, pressing himself against the wall.

Dante sat up, coughing, and immediately retrieved his pistol.

He pointed it directly at Marco’s head.

“Move,” Dante told him.

Marco put his hands up, his face pale and sweating.

I walked over to Vesper and rubbed her forehead.

“Good girl,” I whispered.

She lowered her head, her nostrils flaring as she smelled the blood on the floor.

Dante stood up, adjusting his coat.

He looked at Sterling, who was clutching his bleeding arm on the floor.

“The ledger, Julian,” Dante said.

Sterling pointed weakly to a small safe behind the painting on the wall.

“The code is thirty-two, fourteen, eighty-six,” Sterling whimpered.

I walked over to the safe, swung the painting aside, and spun the dial.

The heavy steel door clicked open.

Inside was a thick, leather-bound book and a stack of flash drives.

I pulled them out and handed them to Dante.

“This contains every transaction,” I said.

“Every bribed official, every stolen shipment, and what he did to me.”

Dante turned the pages, his jaw tightening.

“This is more than enough,” Dante said.