I sat beside her slowly. “You mean Ash, Dev, and Sy.” I swallowed. “And Kieran.”
“Yes.”
“What about them?”
Sable exhaled through her nose. “You don’t understand what they are to each other.”
“Don’t I?”
“No.” Her voice was steady, not cruel. “Kieran was recruited years ago. Elliot hand-picked him after Levi Hawthorne died. They were practically family.”
“From the moment Elliot recruited him, Kieran had one goal.”
“Revenge,” I said flatly. “Against our parents.”
“Yes.” Her eyes held mine. “They killed his father in front of him.”
The words landed, but I didn’t let them sink.
“When he moved next door—”
“It was planned,” I cut in. “I know. He told me.”
“Did he tell you he was supposed to use us?” Sable asked quietly. “That hurting us was part of the strategy?”
For half a second, something cold slid through me.
My jaw locked.
“Kieran would never do that.”
“He was meant to,” she said. “But then something changed. He changed.”
Sable sighed. “He’d always been driven. But he softened. Maybe it was something about us.”
About me.
“Soft?” I snorted. That was not the word I would use to describe him now.
But then I thought of the nights he’d played his guitar from his window — just to make me smile.
It didn’t fit.
K and Kieran felt like two different men.
“When we were together,” Sable continued, “he started telling me things.”
I stiffened. “If this is about whatever happened between you and Kieran, I don’t need the details.”
“It’s not about that,” she snapped. “It’s about Equinox.”
Her voice dropped, controlled again.
“Kieran isn’t just some soldier. He recruits. He builds teams. He hand-picked Ash. He hand-picked Dev. And he picked me. Our unit? It’s one of Elliot’s best.”
A cold weight settled low in my stomach.
“Why are you telling me this?”
