Page 44 of Bound

“Use his own weakness for revenge against him. If he were bulletproof, he would know not to send us messages in the first place”

Gregory grins. “It’s not like the old Bachman days. Everything sent through tech is traceable. We must find the access that made the message possible.”

Rafe’s mouth almost curves. “Exactly.”

Pride moves through me so sharply it nearly hurts.

My brother, my men, my woman, together at the board.

“Well played,” I say.

“Partnership,” Erin counters.

Blaze sighs. “Beautiful. Growth. Love. Emotional evolution. Blah, blah, blah. Can you all afford to miss me for a couple of hours, or what?

He stares down adoringly at the woman in his arms.

We all speak at once. “Go!” “Get out of here!” “See you for dinner.”

He runs from the room, Cleopatra laughing in his arms.

Rafe clicks through the microfilm. Fast. Clean. Blaze isn’t here to say we should torture it out of Isobel, which is a relief. We all know she had no idea what was in that necklace.

“What do we know?” I ask.

“The seal was an old master credential preserved after your father died. Something Marina stole and took with her, then Carlos used dead authority to override the system.”

Click.

“The twelve-second delay was a programmed blind spot. Gates, alarms, and feeds fell out of sync long enough for the wrong people to move through the right doors.”

Click.

“Marina kept copies. Carlos took enough of her records but killed her over something on that microfilm.”

Isobel speaks, and we remember she exists. “And she knew whatever was on that hidden microfilm was important enough that she died keeping it safe.”

Good.

Done.

Click.

Erin adds, “Carlos didn’t choose me by accident. He recognized a wound named Caleb and aimed it.”

I tick off the list. “My father, Marina’s death, revealing that he chose Erin to send, is emotional warfare.”

“As it always is with him,” Isobel agrees.

Rafe turns off the screen. “Now we decide whether to let Carlos believe we are still reacting.”

I feel the answer settle before I speak it.

The boy with the dead parents.

The man from the warehouse.

The king whose Village burned.