Page 94 of Vows of Ruin

That gets her attention. “Which ones?”

“Noah, Kellan, Ruiz, and Dax.”

She pushes off the table, moving toward the monitors. “They’re all running separate work right now. Nothing unusual about that.”

“I know,” I say. “I’m not worried about the work. I’m worried about the silence.”

She hums as her fingers fly over the keyboard. “Kellan checked in 3 days ago. Ruiz dropped a data pack yesterday. Dax pinged late last night.” She pauses. “Noah’s the only one still dark.”

There it is. “How long?” I ask.

“Eight days ago,” She says. “Right after we got back from the farm.”

“Eight days. What’s his last known.”

She’s typing faster now. “He was finishing a recon job near the north corridor. Supposed to swing by the coast after.” She taps the screen, bringing up a map. “That’s where the trail stops. No logout, no handoff. Just… gone.”

“You know him better than me, would he kill his signal on purpose?”

Margot exhales, leaning one hand against the table. “Noah’s a lot of things, but sloppy isn’t one of them. If he broke the pattern, it wasn’t by choice.” She hesitates, then quietly almost to herself, “He wouldn’t walk away from the people he protects…”

I glance up. “You mean her.”

Margot nods. “They were close once. He doesn’t talk about it anymore, but you know what it’s like to be loved by her.”

“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I know exactly how she loves.” I feel the corner of my mouth tugging up. For a moment, the only sound is the hum of the servers and the faint buzz of a light overhead.

I lean forward, elbows on my knees. “So if he hasn’t checked in for this long…”

Margot finishes it for me. “He’s either dead—or he’s being used.”

“Neither option sits right.”

Margot’s jaw tightens. “You think he’s compromised?”

“I think Noah’s the kind of man Sebastian would want on the inside… if he could turn him.”

She shakes her head immediately. “Noah wouldn’t flip his loyalty. Not to him.”

“Wouldn’t or couldn’t?” I ask.

Her glare sharpens as she narrows her eyes at me. “You didn’t see the way he loved her. He barely survived when she dumped him. But he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”

I plant my hands on the edge of the table, staring down at the scattered files. “Then where the hell is he?” It comes out sharper than I mean to.

Margot doesn’t answer right away. Her eyes drift to one of the maps, the same route Noah was supposed to scout last week. The line cuts dangerously close to the area near Wrenley’s childhood home.

When she finally speaks, her voice is barely a whisper. “He might already be there.”

I look up. “You mean—”

She nods once. “If Sebastian’s rebuilding from the ashes, he’s starting with someone who knows how we operate. Someone we trust.”

The realization hits like a cold blade to my gut. “Then Noah’s not missing,” I say. “He’s not ours anymore.”

Margot’s lips press into a thin line. Letting her silence speak more than her words ever could. She’s still staring at the map when I straighten.

“Keep this between us,” I tell her. “I’ll take Torque and check it out myself before we loop everyone in.”