Page 18 of Bound

The boy’s laughter makes my chest hurt. An echo of something I thought I’d have.

Lucian and Erin aren’t here.

The house feels different when Lucian is absent. Men still move. Security still breathes. Fire still burns.

Like gravity has stepped away.

I breathe easier when he’s not here.

Blaze looks at me once, quickly, then away. Not because I interest him.

Because he despises me.

Gregory stands when I enter. Polite reflex. Lucian’s brother.

Softer around the edges, yes. But the same eyes if one knows where to look. Same bone-deep attention. Same habit of holding himself as if stillness is the last defense of the civilized.

“You don’t need to stand,” I say.

He blinks, then sits again. “Sorry. Reflex.”

Blaze looks offended. “I have manners.”

“You have good looks,” Rafe says. “Often mistaken for manners.”

Then Rafe turns the tablet toward me.

Marina’s old mark fills the screen. Not a signature exactly. She would never be so obvious. A small thing. A thin black line through a gold dot.

My throat closes. “Where did you get that?”

Rafe watches me carefully. “A dead courier account came alive.”

I step closer before I can stop myself. The screen shows a message.

MARINA HAS THE PROOF.

Below it, an image. I see the warehouse first. Then Carlos.

Then Lucian.

Younger. Dark-haired. Beautiful in the cruel way young men can be, that makes a girl do stupid things. Their men around them.

My stomach turns. I know this photograph. Not because I have seen this exact print.

Because I’m the one who took it.

Carlos standing two feet from Lucian with a smile that did not reach his eyes. Lucian unaware. The men already turning their bodies toward the stronger center of gravity. Yet they don’t even realize they’re doing it.

I grip the back of a chair.

Rafe notices. “Did Marina send this?”

I stare at the mark on the screen. Closely. There’s something different about the thin black line, the gold circle it runs through.

This one is perfect.

“No,” I say.