“They’re always on us, aren’t they? Always in our business. Coming into our territory.” Keith was getting heated, his voice rising.
Strange. For someone who was selling out his employers, Keith was showing a lot of loyalty to House Bartlett. All thisour businessandour territorymeant that he was more attached to House Bartlett than he wanted me to believe.
If he was selling information, I doubted he was selling out the entire house. Perhaps just one person in the house. I remembered his words, his warning that Cade was getting people killed these days.
Standing, I looked over at Nia. “I need to inform Cade. Is there somewhere you can store him?”
Nia frowned before slowly shaking her head. She glanced significantly at the door, and I made some calculations. Who in House Bartlett would be able to handle this discreetly?
The answer came instantly. Isaac, the man whose job I was taking.
“Go get Jay,” I said.
Nia left. I turned back to Keith.
“You sure you don’t want to start telling me what’s really going on?” I asked. “This is the last chance you have. After this, I throw you to the mages, and who knows what they’ll do to you.”
Keith shook his head, a jerk of motion. “He’ll kill me.”
“Who?” I demanded, but Keith’s eyes swung to the door.
Nia opened it, letting in Jay before shutting it behind her. He took one look at Keith, bound, sweating, terrified, and said, “What’s going on?”
I filled him in quickly. “Could Isaac put him somewhere? Until I’m able to inform Cade?”
Jay looked over Keith. “Yes. I know where Isaac would put him. Let me handle it.”
He and Nia had a conversation in shorthand, and I got the gist of it. They were going to move him to an outbuilding that was warded. Who else did they keep there? Before I could ask, the two of them left, Nia prodding Keith in front of her.
For a moment, I stared at the seat that Keith had been sitting on.He. Keith was afraid of one person. Now I needed to find out who, and I had a feeling once I did, I’d know who was trying to kill Cade.
A small voice in my head wonderedand then what?Once I knew who was trying to kill him, what did I do next?
There was noise as the dining room doors opened, the mages leaving their werewolf-free meeting. Slipping out, I searched the crowd for Cade and found him already mounting the stairs to his room. At the top, I caught up to him, and he startled violently when I touched his elbow.
I opened my mouth, but he shook his head sharply. Pointing, he gestured to his room, and I followed, waiting until the door had shut before I tried again.
“Cade,” I said. “Something happened.”
Cade spun, his eyes glinting and sharp as diamonds. No, not diamonds—his eyes were as sharp as ice sheered directly from a glacier.
“Who are you really?” he demanded. “Miles, I need the truth.”
ChapterTwenty-One
Istared at Cade. For a moment, I thought about telling him the truth, stripping away all of the lies between us.
My name is Miles Castillo. I am the last remaining heir to the Castillo Pack. Eleven years ago, my parents killed your parents, and I’ve been on the run ever since. I’m here because I don’t have anywhere else to go to escape Declan Monroe and also because if I don’t find out what happened to my parents, I will never be able to live as a true alpha.
But telling him that was a death sentence, and I hadn’t gotten to where I was by taking long jumps off short ropes. If I hadn’t rolled over and let myself be killed when I was sixteen and had seen all my siblings but one murdered, I wasn’t about to start now.
“What do you mean? You didn’t need to know anything about me when you saved me from Declan. In fact,youchoseme.” I crossed my arms, feeling the muscles tense and jump.
“You didn’t grow up in the church. Even I can tell that. So who are you? Where did you come from?” His eyes searched my face, but there was a blankness on his feature. He had all the excitement of someone asking their smart phone if it was going to rain.
“No. I didn’t grow up in the church. I grew up with Declan Monroe.” I threw it at him. “Is that what you wanted me to tell your high-society house members? That the consort you chose used to be a thug for the biggest crime boss on this coast?”
Cade’s nostrils flared, and he gritted his jaw before biting out, “And before that? Or are you suggesting that Declan raised you from infancy?”
