I drove my knee up hard. He twisted and took it on his hip, stumbling back far enough that I could break free. My elbow connected with his ribs where I'd stabbed him, and he gasped.
"What checks?" I demanded.
"The ones signed by your precious cardinal." Lorenzo straightened carefully, and the pain showed in every movement. "The Foundation for Children's Welfare. Your names are all over those manifests and the funding papers. You’re as complicit as he was in child trafficking."
My stomach dropped. The Foundation. I'd signed those funding requests myself. Dozens of them. "We were helping orphans."
"You helped him buy children and ship them to Pantheon training facilities." Lorenzo's eyes never left my face, and I hated that he was watching me process this. "Bangkok, Manila, Eastern Europe, Alaska. Your signature's on half the wire transfer authorizations. You personally approved sending over three million dollars to child traffickers."
"No! That can’t be right!” Because if he was telling the truth, then I had… I was…
The stone wall against my back was the only thing keeping me upright. My knees wanted to buckle, so I locked them to stay standing.
"Stop," I choked out. "Just stop. You're lying. You have to be lying. This is what you do. Break people down—"
"The North American Director ordered every training facility in his territory to shut down last year." Lorenzo kept going and wouldn't let me escape this. "But Azevedo went behind his back. There’s still one going in Alaska right now, and dozens more around the world."
How many children? How many small faces had looked up at me with trust while I signed their death sentences?
"He was a good man," I whispered, and the words tasted like ash.
"Your mentor was feeding children into a meat grinder," Lorenzo said. "And you were his accountant."
"Fuck you." I pushed off the wall and launched a flurry of blind attacks. "Fuck you and your lies."
I drove him back against the courtyard wall, where he smashed his knee up into my solar plexus. Pain exploded as all the air rushed out of my lungs. I stumbled back, giving him a clear shot.
A shot he didn’t take.
Then, red laser dots bloomed on both our chests, and I froze.
"Drop your weapons." An unseen male voice demanded. "Now."
Lorenzo stepped slightly in front of me before I could react, as if he were protecting me. The movement made my face heat even more.
Six figures in black tactical gear emerged from the shadows all around us, assault rifles trained on our positions. Shit. Pantheon enforcers.
My blade clattered to the cobblestones and Lorenzo's follow a heartbeat later. He pressed one hand to his bleeding side and raised the other.
I raised my hands slowly.
The team leader stepped forward. "Father Rafael Oliviera. You're being detained for violation of sanctuary rules."
The Acropolis. I'd stabbed Lorenzo inside Eden. It was supposed to be neutral ground, and I’d violated it. Dammit.
“Wait a minute,” Lorenzo said, stepping in front of me again. “It’s not what you think.”
The team leader ignored him and grabbed me by the arm, twisting one hand behind my back.
“It was consensual!” Lorenzo exclaimed, and everyone in the courtyard froze.
"We were…flirting," Lorenzo said.
“Flirting?” someone repeated, the tone doubtful.
“Well, it was a little more hot and heavy than that. He’s into knife play. I mean, I am. We both are.”
"Knife play," the team leader repeated.
