#Chapter 76 - The Trap

Aldo Everything in me wanted to protest to this new plan. To tell Layla she was wrong, that there was no way this could be allowed to happen. She wasn’t just putting herself in danger—she was using herself as goddamned bait! How on Earth could I let something like that happen, encourage it, even? Tailor a plan around it? It was madness. But the strategist in me—the one who wanted to win this war before anyone else died—knew she was right. It was logical, calculated, a weakness we hadn’t yet thought to exploit. A weapon we hadn’t yet tried to use. “I think I might have an idea for this,” I said, my voice a low murmur in the quiet of the office. Just because she was a weapon we hadn’t yet used, that didn’t mean I hadn’t considered it. Orlov set his vodka glass down with a crack. “You can’t be serious? You want to use my granddaughter as bait?” “It would work.” I leaned over the desk to point to a location on the map: a sprawling factory complex on the outskirts of the city.