Chapter 14
I did not blame Maria.
Vanessa wanted me to.
“She hid it from you.”
I looked at her.
“You threatened her daughter.”
“She still lied.”
“She survived.”
Vanessa smiled.
“So did Sophia.”
I felt every man in the security room go still.
That sentence would follow her forever.
If I allowed forever.
I turned to my captain.
“South Ridge?”
“We checked.”
“What?”
“Two Voss teams already positioned.”
Grant’s face changed.
Friday was four days away.
Why were they already there?
Vincent answered.
“Practice.”
I stared.
He shook his head.
“No. Sorry.”
He corrected himself.
“They were waiting for confirmation.”
“From whom?”
Silence.
Then my captain looked at Grant’s phone.
One outgoing message after I entered the kitchen.
HOME EARLY.
Grant went pale.
He had warned them.
I looked at him.
“You changed the plan tonight.”
“No.”
“You sent confirmation.”
“They needed to know.”
“Know what?”
“That you were back.”
“And?”
Silence.
The second team had moved.
Not Friday.
Tonight.
I raised my radio.
“Where are they?”
Response came immediately.
“South perimeter.”
I looked at Vanessa.
She whispered:
“They weren’t supposed to come here.”
Grant laughed bitterly.
“You still believe Voss?”
Her face collapsed.
Good.
The people who planned betrayal were learning the cost of trusting betrayers.
Within twenty minutes, my men contained the second team outside the estate.
One carried photographs.
Maria.
Sophia.
Me.
On Sophia’s photograph someone had written:
PRESSURE.
On Maria’s:
PHONE.
On mine:
CONTROL.
I placed all three on the table.
Vanessa looked away.
Grant didn’t.
“Practical labels.”
I stared.
“You think this makes you strong.”
He smiled.
“It makes me realistic.”
“No.”
I looked at Sophia’s picture.
“It makes you the kind of man who needs a hungry three-year-old to win.”
His smile vanished.
Then one captured Voss man was brought downstairs.
He saw Vanessa.
And laughed.
“She still wearing the ring?”
Vanessa froze.
“What?”
He smiled.
“Voss said she’d keep pretending until the very end.”
May you like
My fiancée looked at me.
And finally realized the enemy had never expected her to become anything except disposable access to my house.
