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“Why him?” Sofia asked.
“Because Victor would have shot her on sight without intervention,” Teo replied simply. “Victor, take her to the living room. Miranda, we’re not going to kill you unless you really piss us off, okay?”
She stared at him, wide-eyed. If she said anything behind the duct tape, I didn’t know what it was. We could see Victor and Miranda through the sliding glass door as he sat her down on his sectional.
He turned to look at Sofia. “Her? Really?” Teo asked, his eyes narrowing in skepticism. “And you expect me to believe she’ll lead us straight to the mastermind?”
“Teo, you know as well as I do that our enemies will stop at nothing to take us down,” Sofia argued, her voice firm but calm. It was a testament to her resilience. I knew she had to be scared of Teo still; fuck, I was often scared of him myself. “Miranda is a valuable lead, and we can’t afford to let her slip away.”
“Fine,” he said reluctantly, tapping his fingers on the circular desk in front of him. “But how exactly do you plan to get her to talk? She’s not one of us, and I don’t trust her.”
“Give me time,” Sofia replied. “I will gain her trust, and we’ll learn everything she knows. When she finally realizes that she’s being used, she’ll have no choice but to help us.”
“Or she’ll betray us,” Teo countered.
“Betray us? To whom?” I asked. “We took her phone, we have access to all her electronics. It’s not like she can go somewhere and just betray us.”
Sofia shuddered. “If she does something out of line, we’re prepared to deal with the consequences,” Sofia shot back, her confidence unwavering. “But if we do nothing, we’re giving our enemies exactly what they want.”
“Think about it, boss,” I added, my own voice laced with urgency. “We’ve been backed into a corner for too long. It’s time to fight back and reclaim what’s ours. Do you really want to pass up this opportunity?”
Teo’s eyes scanned each of our faces, searching for any hint of doubt. He turned to Grayson, who shrugged again.
“You can always kill her yourself if she pisses you off,” he said.
“Very well,” Teo conceded after a tense moment, his gaze never leaving Sofia’s face. “But keep her under close watch. You got this, right?”
“Yes,” Sofia said.
We took a little longer to discuss logistics; where we were going to put her, what, exactly, we were going to do with her. We had yet to come to any conclusions.
Then Teo sighed. “Leave her here,” he said. “For now. Sof can stay with me. We can figure this out together.”
Sofia smiled, a little hesitantly. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said, then sighed. “And I guess the rest of you guys can sleep here too.”
It didn’t take long before we settled into our sleeping arrangements for the night. Teo had begrudgingly allowed us to stay, but it was clear that he was still skeptical about our plan. Sofia had disappeared with him into his private quarters, leaving the rest of us to settle in on the living room floor.
Teo had plenty of bedrooms for us to stay in, but we needed to keep an eye on Miranda. Mostly, I needed to keep an eye on Victor keeping an eye on Miranda.
Victor tore the duct tape off her face. “If you guys think I’m going to sleep, you’re insane,” she said between gritted teeth.
I ignored her as I looked up at Grayson, who was coming in from the pool deck.
He scanned the room, assessing the situation, before settling down beside me. “You did a good job in there, backing her up,” he said quietly. “Teo’s a tough nut to crack.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Gray.”
He walked over to where Victor and Miranda were sitting, his footsteps soft against the carpet. He crouched down in front of her, his gaze locking onto hers.
“You’re probably wondering why we’ve done this,” he said, his voice low and measured.
Miranda glared at him, her eyes brimming with hatred.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Grayson continued, ignoring her hostility. “But we do need your help.”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Miranda spat out, her voice filled with venom.
