Chapter 2
I remained in the study because leaving would make everyone else feel safer.
I did not want them safe.
Not yet.
Dr. Reynolds confirmed I had been sedated, not poisoned.
That distinction mattered.
Victor had wanted me unconscious.
Alive.
Unable to act.
For how long, we did not yet know.
Dante stood near the desk.
Elena sat with Sophia in the corner.
Victor remained restrained.
“What did you use?”
He shrugged.
“You assume it was me.”
I looked at the frozen footage again.
“Your hand.”
“My face.”
“Your watch.”
He smiled.
“Still doesn’t tell you what was in it.”
True.
So I looked at Dr. Reynolds.
He understood.
“A fast sedative could produce collapse, disorientation, several hours of weakness.”
“Hours.”
“Yes.”
Not death.
Absence.
Temporary.
I leaned back.
“What was supposed to happen during those hours?”
Victor said nothing.
Sophia turned a page in her notebook.
I noticed movement.
“Wait.”
She froze.
“What?”
“Show me.”
Elena looked uneasy.
“Sophia draws everything.”
Good.
Sophia handed me the notebook.
One page showed Titan beside his kennel.
Another showed a man with something in his hand.
A long black object.
Leash?
No.
A stick.
I looked at Elena.
“When did she draw this?”
“This week.”
Sophia corrected her.
“Yesterday.”
Victor stopped breathing for half a second.
Dante saw it too.
“What is he holding?”
Sophia pointed.
“Meat.”
I looked at Titan.
Then at Victor.
“You fed my dog?”
Victor laughed.
“Everyone feeds him.”
“No.”
Dante shook his head.
“Only kennel staff and Boss.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Sophia flipped another page.
Titan lying down.
Victor standing near him.
Then another.
Titan behind the study door.
Victor pointing toward it.
Patterns.
A child drawing what adults ignored.
I looked at Dante.
“Check kennel footage.”
His face tightened.
“There’s a gap.”
Of course.
“How long?”
“Fourteen minutes yesterday.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“Convenient.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t authorize it.”
I looked at him.
Another problem.
Someone had access to security.
Victor could not have trained Titan to react to my collapse alone.
The dog had been conditioned.
Not to attack.
To guard.
To keep everyone away.
May you like
Which meant Victor had not only planned for me to fall unconscious.
He had planned for my own dog to delay anyone from helping me.
