Silas woke before sunrise, the unfamiliar ceiling of the safehouse taking a moment to place itself, and beside him Marielle still slept, her breathing slow and even, one hand curled loosely against the pillow between them. For a moment he simply watched her, something quiet and unfamiliar settling in his chest, before the weight of the night before came rushing back in full.He eased out of bed carefully, pulling on last night's shirt, and found Reyes already awake in the kitchen, two mugs of coffee sitting on the counter, one already cooling untouched."You didn't sleep," Silas said, taking the second mug."Neither did you, from the look of it." Reyes studied him a moment. "How'd she take it.""Better than I expected," Silas admitted. "Worse than I hoped. Somewhere in between, I think, is honest.""That's about as good as anyone in her position could manage," Reyes said. "Corinne called twice overnight. Wanted to know if we'd figured out who tied her up in her own study. I told her w

"Enough," Silas said, and the single word cut through the kitchen like a blade, every trace of the soft, unfinished conversation about hidden betrayals suddenly folding beneath something colder and far more certain. "We chase the ghost later. Right now, Dominic Kade is wounded, exposed, and sitting alone with men who watched him fail twice. That ends today."Reyes straightened at the shift in his voice, recognizing it instantly, the particular stillness that meant Silas had stopped weighing options and started making decisions. "You want to move on him now.""I want to move on him while he's still bleeding from the chapel," Silas said. "Every hour we spend chasing shadows is an hour he spends rebuilding whatever's left of his confidence. I'm not giving him that hour."Naomi glanced between them, some of the earlier fear from Dara's call still lingering in her expression, though something steadier replaced it now, following Silas's lead. "What do you need from us.""Everything you can

"Who are you," Silas said, weapon raised and steady despite the storm working violently behind his eyes, Dominic's body still slumped over the desk between them."A fair question," the woman said, setting her own weapon down on the desk with slow, deliberate calm, hands raised afterward in a gesture that felt more like courtesy than surrender. "My name is Isabelle. Though I imagine that means very little to you right now.""You knew my mother," Silas said, voice tight and controlled despite everything raging beneath it."I loved your mother," Isabelle said, something briefly, genuinely soft crossing her composed features. "Before any of this began. Before Jonathan. Before you. We grew up together, Silas, two girls with nothing, who swore to each other we'd claw our way into something better no matter what it cost."Reyes moved further into the room, weapon still trained on Isabelle, though his eyes kept flicking toward Dominic's body, toward the door, calculating threats that hadn't y

"Say that again," Silas said, voice barely above a whisper, every muscle in his body suddenly rigid. "Slowly. I need to hear it exactly the way he said it."Marielle swallowed hard, hands still trembling faintly as she reached for his. "He said Isabelle isn't the ally you think she is. That everything she told you tonight was meant to earn your trust. And that the truth about your mother, the real truth, is something she's buried more carefully than anything else."Silas released a long breath, pulling away just enough to pace the small living room, mind racing back through every word Isabelle had spoken in that house not even an hour ago, her calm confessions, her careful grief, the genuine sounding ache in her voice when she spoke of his mother."He didn't give a name," Silas said. "This man. Did he say who sent him.""No," Marielle said. "Just that you'd understand once you thought about it.""I don't understand anything right now," Silas admitted, low and frustrated, hand dragging

"You're supposed to be dead," Silas said, voice low and taut, phone pressed hard against his ear. "Six years dead, according to everyone who ever mentioned your name to me tonight.""I know," Marcus Halloway said, and there was a rough, worn quality to his voice, the sound of a man who'd spent a long time speaking to no one at all. "I made certain of that particular rumor myself, actually. Seemed like the only way I'd live long enough to have this conversation with you eventually.""Then start talking," Silas said. "Because in the last hour I've been told a story about a woman who protected my mother for twenty years, and then told a completely different story about the same woman standing outside a clinic the week my mother died. I don't have patience left for half truths tonight."Marielle stayed close beside him, her hand still resting against his arm, silent support as he paced the length of her small living room."Isabelle didn't lie to you," Marcus said carefully. "Not exactly.