Chapter 7
We found Daniel in the cigar lounge downstairs.
He did not run.
That annoyed me.
Cowards are easier to dislike when they behave like cowards.
Daniel Carrow was thirty-seven.
Lean.
Calm.
Same eyes as Tobias.
He looked at me and smiled.
“Octavian.”
I sat across from him.
“No reunion?”
“We were never close.”
True.
“What were you waiting for?”
“My brother to finish.”
“He failed.”
Daniel’s smile faded.
“Did he?”
Good question.
Five men had still agreed with him.
A grievance did not disappear because its origin became complicated.
“What do you want?”
“Carrow back.”
Simple.
“What does that mean?”
“Our own people.”
“Which people?”
He named crews.
Families.
Clubs.
Half of them had been born into Westbrook-Carrow unity after the merger.
They had never worked under independent Carrow.
Daniel still considered them inherited property.
“What if they don’t want to go?”
His expression tightened.
“They will.”
Wrong.
“You asked?”
Silence.
Of course not.
Tobias planned to use Cassandra as the emotional trigger.
Daniel planned to use Tobias.
Nobody had asked the people supposedly being restored.
Then I noticed something.
Daniel was wearing one of Ansel’s spare hearing-aid battery cases on a chain.
Small blue plastic.
I knew it because I bought the set.
My body went still.
“Where did you get that?”
He looked down.
Too late.
“Tobias.”
“For what?”
“No reason.”
I held out my hand.
He hesitated.
Then surrendered it.
Inside was no battery.
A tiny storage card.
I looked at him.
“What’s on it?”
He smiled again.
“The meetings.”
Of course.
They had recorded their own secret discussions.
Insurance.
Against each other.
Daniel did not trust Tobias.
Tobias did not trust Malcolm.
Malcolm did not trust the five captains.
A rebellion built on inherited loyalty had apparently documented itself because nobody trusted anyone.
Beautiful.
Rafe accessed the card.
Audio.
Weeks of meetings.
Then one file with Tobias and Daniel alone.
Daniel’s voice:
Cassandra doesn’t need to agree. She only needs to stand beside you long enough for the room to believe she does.
Tobias answered:
And if she walks back to Octavian?
Daniel:
Then we say he threatened her.
I looked at Daniel.
May you like
He had not planned a family split.
He had planned a story in which every possible choice by my sister served him.
