The silence after the call ends is deafening.
Thomas stares at his phone like it might explode. Tony’s face has gone completely blank - not angry, not scared, just... empty. The shutdown of soone whose mind is processing an impossible reality.
"They want you to kill ." Tony’s voice is eerily calm and detached. Like he’s discussing the weather instead of his own execution.
"I won’t." Thomas sets the phone down with shaking hands. "I’d die first."
"Then we both die." Tony’s green eyes are distant. "Plus Katherine, Elliot, and everyone we care about. That’s what M said."
My mind is already racing, analyzing, calculating. This is what I do: take impossible problems and break them into solvable components. Banking trained to see patterns, find solutions, and work the angles.
"Then we fake it," I say. Both n turn to look at . "We fake Tony’s death. Stage it, photograph it, send proof to M to buy ourselves ti."
Thomas shakes his head slowly. "M will verify. They always verify. They’ll want confirmation from sources they control - coroner’s report, death certificate, body in morgue. They don’t take anyone’s word for anything."
"Then we give them all of that." I move to Thomas’s desk, grab a paper and pen, and start making notes. "We need a body of similar height and build. We need makeup, staging, photography, and we need official docuntation."
"Katherine." Tony’s voice is gentle. "You’re talking about faking my death in less than twenty-four hours. That’s-"
"Possible." A new voice from the doorway.
Luca Torrino stands there in rumpled clothes, his hair disheveled like he’s been sleeping on the couch downstairs. His dark eyes are sharp despite the hour. "I heard everything. Thin walls." He motioned.
Tony tenses. "How much did you hear?"
"Enough." Luca walks into the study and closes the door behind him. "Soone ordered Thomas to kill you within twenty-four hours. You need to fake your death convincingly enough to fool whoever’s pulling the strings." He looks at Thomas. "I know how to do it. My father taught , rember? He faked his own death perfectly."
The irony isn’t lost on anyone.
"You’d help us?" Thomas asks, suspicion clear in his voice.
"My father’s fake death nearly got Katherine killed. Consider this penance." Luca pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through contacts. "Plus, if there’s soone above Angelo controlling everything, I want them exposed. They’ve been using Torrino family resources without my knowledge. That makes this personal."
Tony and I exchange glances. The enemy of our enemy, helping us survive.
"What do we need?" Tony asks.
Luca sits at the desk and starts writing his own list. "First, an unclaid body. A male, six feet to six-two, muscular build, no identifying marks. Morgue has them occasionally - overdoses, holess, people with no family. Second, Dr. Marsh. He’s the coroner who faked my father’s death - corrupt but competent. Third, a forensic makeup artist. I know soone. And fourth, a photographer who won’t ask questions."
"How long?" Thomas asks.
"To gather resources? Six hours if we’re lucky. To prep the body and stage everything? Four more hours, which leaves us fourteen hours buffer for M’s deadline." Luca looks up. "It’s tight but doable."
The surreal nightmare of this conversation hits . We’re calmly discussing acquiring a corpse to substitute for the man I love. Using soone’s unclaid body - soone who died alone, unmourned - to save Tony’s life.
"This is wrong." The words slip out. "We’re desecrating soone’s remains. Using their death for-"
"My survival." Tony’s hand finds mine. "I know. Add it to the list of sins I’m carrying."
His green eyes et mine, and I see the weight there. Every moral compromise, every violent act, every line crossed - all of it accumulating. And now this. Using a stranger’s corpse as a prop in our desperate gamble.
"I’ll make the calls," Thomas says, already dialing. "Luca, coordinate with your people. Katherine, we’ll need Tony’s clothes and personal items for staging. And-" He pauses. "We need to keep the FBI in the dark. Morrison would stop this imdiately."
"Vincent’s in custody," Luca points out. "He can’t warn M that it’s fake."
"Unless M has other sources inside the FBI." Tony’s tactical mind is working despite everything. "We assu Vincent was the only leak at our peril."
The next hour blurs into controlled chaos. Thomas making quiet calls to contacts accumulated over thirty years of criminal operations. Luca coordinating with Torrino family resources. Tony providing specifications - his exact height, weight, and distinctive features that will need to be replicated.
I make coffee that no one drinks. Organize clothes Tony will need to "die" in. Try not to think about what we’re actually doing.
My phone buzzes, and it’s Elliot, via video call.
"Katherine." His face fills the screen, worried. "The FBI just asked about digital forensics. They want to analyze communications from Vincent’s phone. I didn’t tell them anything, but what’s happening?"
"El." I move to a quiet corner and speak softly. "We need your help. But you can’t tell anyone. Not the FBI, not your therapist, no one."
His eyes narrow. "What kind of help?"
"The kind that involves digital image manipulation. Making a photograph look absolutely real when it’s... not."
Silence. Elliot’s brilliant mind processing the implications. "You’re faking soone’s death."
"Can you do it? If we send you a photograph, can you alter it to be completely convincing? Forensically sound?"
"Yes." No hesitation. "I can adjust lighting, shadows, depth, and color balance. Make it indistinguishable from a real photograph. But Katherine-"
"I know." I close my eyes briefly. "It’s illegal and dangerous. Asking too much."
"I was going to say be careful." His voice softens. "And I’ll do it. Whatever you need. You’re my sister, you’ve protected my whole life... let protect you now."
Tears sting my eyes. "Thank you."
"Send the image when ready. I’ll have it back to you in an hour."
The call ends.
I stand there holding my phone, overwheld by my baby brother’s willingness to commit federal cris to save us.
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