And was just about to put the whole stack back into the padded envelope when he noticed one more sheet all the way at the back, different from the others This wasn’t a copy. No secrets from the past. Just a white piece of paper with two lines typed in its center. A message that contained a few more words this time.

We can kill your children at any time.

We can expose you at any time.

Chapter 12

He’d stationed himself on a wooden bench at the top of a small hill that rose shyly above the neighborhood, a hill that must have been forgotten when the rest of the area was flattened out to make parking lots or build the concrete foundations of apartment complexes. From here, he had a perfect view over the schoolyard and the windows of Rasmus’s and Hugo’s classrooms.

Around lunchtime Piet Hoffmann had driven his boys to their elementary school south of the city, where he’d gone many times for parent-teacher conferences over the years, and where Rasmus and Hugo were finishing up their second- and fourth-grade years. It had all gone by so fast. They were so big now. He and Zofia must have grown up quite a bit as well.

He’d dropped them off in front of the school, tried to hug them but had no luck in the chaos of every student arriving simultaneously, and watched them run toward their friends without looking back once. But he didn’t leave them. Nor was he leaving Zofia and Luiza unguarded. He’d placed a discreet call to Juan and Nic last night—two teenagers he’d gotten out of bad spots, and who were completely loyal to him and good with guns—and now they were following Zofia’s every step. Twice in less than a day faceless people had contacted him, threatened him, proved how easy it would be to kill his children.

Just the thought. Like a burning knife. That sliced him open from head to heart, and left nothing but destruction behind.

Someone was watching him, following him.

Who?

Somebody wanted something, a warning.

But why?

He almost screamed it out loud.

Show your face, for fuck’s sake!