Spencer glared at him and Mark looked delighted.
Unfortunately, Spencer couldn’t even properly argue because his mind was still back on that beach. On her expression when she’d seen him.
Fear first, followed quickly by calculation, and then control… she had hidden it well.
Most people wouldn’t have noticed the shift. Spencer had thought because he’d spent his entire life around predators pretending not to be predators, he recognised survival instinct when he saw it.
That was the real problem, not whether she was the heir or whether he could complete the job. But whether hewantedto, because deep down, somewhere beneath the logic and training and years of taking contracts without hesitation, something felt wrong about returning her.
The thought settled heavily in his chest. He stared out toward the window, jaw tight.
If she had run and had hidden herself for years then maybe there was a reason.
The more Spencer thought about the Smokeclaw clan, the more he remembered the way the women never spoke freely. The way the men carried anger like inheritance. The way the envoy hadn’t once referred to her as a person. Only as obligation, an asset, one that needed to be returned immediately.
His instincts curled sharply at the memory, it was wrong, but a job was a job and Spencer had built his life on one very simple rule:
Finish what you started.
Especially when the stakes were this high.
He and Mark had earned the retirement it promised.
Hadn’t they?
Mark’s voice broke through his thoughts. “You’re spiralling.”
“I’m evaluating.”
“You’re emotionally evaluating.”
Spencer looked horrified. “Take that back.”
Mark barked out a laugh.
Spencer scowled into his coffee, because maybe, annoyingly, his brother wasn’t entirely wrong.
Something about her had shifted the balance and Spencer didn’t know what to do with that yet.
Did he return her to the people she’d clearly feared enough to flee from? Or did he walk away from the biggest bounty either of them had ever seen?
Neither option sat comfortably. Which meant, inevitably, things were about to get messy… and Spencer hated messy.
Especially when it came wrapped in purple hair and freckles and eyes that had looked at him like he was the start of another nightmare.
16
Edith smiled,nodded when needed, and pretended. It was becoming a real skill at this point.
“Oh no, I completely understand,” she said dryly as Binky dramatically turned his back on her for what had to be the seventh time that morning.
“You have betrayed the covenant,” Binky informed her without looking at her.
“There was never a covenant.”
“There was emotionally.”
Bas flicked his tail from where he lounged across the back of the sofa. “You’re human now. You’re one ofthem.”
