Page 188 of Forbidden Fate

Okay, not everything.

But this?

This piece?

It fits.

Eagle, Falcon, and Hawk buried a man in the barn all those years ago.

A man they believed was Diego Vega.

A man tied to whatever happened back then, to Eagle, to secrets, to violence, to the kind of nightmare my brothers spent years carrying.

But they buried the son.

Not the father.

The father is the one Vinnie dealt with.

The father is the one connected to Vinnie’s grandfather. To his organization. To the old alliances and crimes and all the tangled threads.

Hawk, Falcon, and Eagle never met Vega Senior.

Why would they know the difference?

And Vinnie never met Vega Junior.

Why would he?

Two men.

One name.

One dead.

One very much alive.

My stomach turns.

“Wait,” I whisper.

Cruz doesn’t push. Doesn’t try to step inside. Doesn’t reach for me.

I need space to think, and if he touches me right now, I don’t trust my brain to keep doing its job.

“The picture,” I say.

His brow furrows. “What picture?”

“The photo. The one that made us think Vega Senior was dead.” I press my fingers to my temple, trying to slow the stampede in my head. “It turned out to be AI. Fake. But if my brothers had seen it, they would have realized it wasn’t the same man. Right?”

Cruz doesn’t answer immediately.

Because he doesn’t know.

But I do.

I do.