Elara reached the village café, her pulse racing. She recognized the man in the gray suit from the gate—he was sitting alone, sipping an espresso.

She sat down across from him without an invitation. "Where is he?"

The man looked up, his eyes weary. This wasn't an assassin. He was Julian’s personal investigator, a man named Elias. "He’s doing something incredibly stupid, Miss Vance. He’s meeting Vanderbilt in Geneva. He gave him the ledger."

"He gave it to him?" Elara’s heart sank. "He gave away the only thing that could stop him?"

"No," Elias leaned in, lowering his voice. "He gave him a version of the ledger that contains a digital tracker. Julian isn't trying to win a court case anymore. He’s trying to find the location of the Vane family’s offshore 'Black Fund'—the money that pays for the hits, the bribes, and the fires. But to trigger the tracker, Julian had to go in person. He’s the bait."

"He's going to get himself killed," Elara realized, the blood draining from her face.