His response came almost immediately:You’re making a mistake.
Probably. Almost certainly.
But it was my mistake to make.
I headed toward my apartment to pack, my mind already running through flight plans and contingencies and all the ways this could go catastrophically wrong. The pre-dawn air was coldenough to sting, and somewhere in the distance, I could hear sirens wailing.
The sound felt prophetic.
Like the city itself was warning me that I was about to cross a line that would change everything.
I just hoped that when the dust settled and the truth finally came out, we’d both still be alive to face the consequences.
Chapter 10 – Cassandra
I stood outside Rafael’s office door for a full thirty seconds before knocking, my knuckles hovering over the polished wood while I ran through the lie one more time in my head.
Father Vincent is sick. I need to visit him. Two days, maybe three.
Nothing suspicious. Nothing that would trigger Rafael’s paranoia or make him question my loyalty.
Just a girl visiting the man who raised her. Perfectly fucking normal.
Except nothing about my life was normal anymore, and the fact that I was about to lie to Rafael’s face while planning to meet with the man who’d been manipulating me for two years made my stomach churn with something that felt dangerously close to guilt.
I knocked twice. Sharp, efficient. The way I always did.
“Come in.”
Rafael was at his desk, surrounded by the usual chaos of documents and phones and that ever-present cigar burning in the crystal ashtray. He didn’t look up when I entered, just kept signing whatever contract he was working through with the kind of focused precision that had always made him terrifying.
“Can I have two days off?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral.
His pen paused mid-signature. He looked up slowly, his gray eyes, so similar to Drew’s but somehow colder, more calculating, fixing on me with the intensity of a man who’d built an empire by noticing details other people missed.
“That’s rare,” he said finally.
I nodded. “Father Vincent is sick. I want to visit him.”
The lie came out smooth. Easy. Like I’d been practicing it for weeks instead of cobbling it together in desperation an hour ago. Rafael studied me for a long moment, and I could practically see him running calculations behind those eyes, weighing the truth of my words against the patterns he’d observed over three years.
Then he nodded. “Fly with Drew.”
My heart stopped. “I don’t need—”
“Drew’s going to Seattle to finalize some deals,” Rafael interrupted, his attention already shifting back to the documents in front of him. “Makes sense for you to fly together. More efficient.”
I forced myself to breathe. To keep my expression neutral even as panic clawed at my throat. “You trained me how to protect myself. I don’t need a chaperone.”
Rafael raised one eyebrow, and there was something almost amused in his expression. “It’s not about protection, Cassandra. It’s about efficiency. Two of my people going to the same city at the same time should travel together. Unless there’s a reason you’d prefer to go alone?”
The question hung in the air like a trap. Like he was testing me. Waiting to see if I’d reveal something I shouldn’t.
I smiled. Tight. Fake as fuck. “Perfect.”
“Good. Let Drew know when you’re ready to leave.”
Dismissed. Just like that. No further questions. No indication that he suspected anything beyond standard operational logistics.
