Page 72 of Watched

“It’s fake,” I announce.

“Mmm,” Blade hums. “I think so too.”

“You’ve studied the cameras?” my father asks me.

“Not yet, I’ve been busy.”

Blade’s calm breaths deepen. “I will not continue wasting time and have Alexa in another country because you aren’t doing your fucking job. Get your dick wet after you’ve helped clean up the fucking mess you made.”

“This isn’t impacting you seeing her. You can’t fucking do that anyway.”

“Five years,” Blade spits, looking to our father. “Five fucking years, I’ve been sitting in hell watching her through a screen. How long is my sentence? Hmm? How long will you keep her away from me?”

Dad lifts his cigar, stare unwavering. The smoke puffs past us, thickening the already suffocating air. “She doesn’t want to be near you, Blade. I truthfully don’t blame her.”

“How would you feel if someone was keeping you from Mum? You’d kill anyone in your way.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Take it how you will.”

“I mean, he’s not wrong,” I interject, staring at our father and siding with Blade.

“I don’t want to hear another word about Alexa,” Dad spits.

Blade grinds his cigarette into the ashtray and slides his hands into his pockets. His right begins to move, and I know he’s rubbing the pad of his thumb and index finger together.

Mum had encouraged him to find something to help calm himself when he felt he was about to lose control, and that action is what he landed on. I’d walked into the home theatre once, and he was methodically rubbing his fingers while staring into the abyss. I turned around and walked straight back out. I didn’t particularly feel like dying that day.

I clear my throat, gaining their attention. “I’ll check the cameras, but if Josephine’s death is at the hands of Smith, I guarantee the footage will be spliced.”

“Then find the IP address that did it,” Blade says.

“It’s not that simple, man. IPs can be hidden.”

“You’re fucking useless. Alexa almost died because of you.”

My heart squeezes. I feel terrible that the only reason she was given those pills was to be used as bait because of me, but her mental state, the events in her past, and her family are not my fault. I tried to help her; I did the best I could to make her head less chaotic, and this dumb fuck is partly the reason her mental state is as shattered as it is. He had a mission to ruin her, and he did.

“Why?” Dad taps his finger on the desk. “I want to know why Ezra would have any reason to kill Josephine.”

“They were in separate prisons,” I supply, relaxing back. “The other three were all together. What if she made a deal to rat about something they communicated about pre-prison?” I was lying in bed last night, listening to Rome sleep quietly on my chest while my brain ran through every reason someone would want her dead. “What if she was their next pawn?” I suggest.

The few wrinkles on my father’s forehead reveal themselves with a curious raise of his brows. “Explain.”

“Sam Kidd was in San Francisco. Sacramento is only an hour and a half away from San Francisco. If we’d taken the bait, gone to San Fran and Kidd failed, she may have been their back up.”

“Still doesn’t explain why she’s dead,” Blade probes.

“They were broadcast on the news for months. Maybe a parent of a child photographed saw her and took it into their own hands. Maybe they wanted their own revenge.”

Dad sighs, running a hand down his face. “A citizen cannot orchestrate a suicide as meticulous as that. There are too many unknowns. I don’t like unknowns.”

He doesn’t like not being in control of the situation is what he means. Thanks to me, he controls every conversation. He’s smart, though, never threatening or allowing blackmail to be obvious. He’ll manipulate the conversation to add subtext where needed and infer certain facts, but he’ll never state them.

Know the game inside out but also know your player. Is something he taught me from a young age while we were playing chess. You can play the player, but if you don’t know how to manipulate every rule of the game, you’ve already lost. Let them think they’ve won; they then become complacent, and you’re already five moves ahead before they realise.

He’s created a fortress, me and Blade as security.