“Fine.” Jaeger leaned back in his chair, seemingly unconcerned by the weapon pointed at his head. “My partnership with Farrow didn’t start until after I accepted the contract on a man named Levi Pierce.”
Lira’s brow furrowed at the unfamiliar name, but she remained silent, letting Jaeger continue.
“I didn’t know back then that Brooker was working under that alias in the rings. The evidence supplied in the purchased contract was sufficient to show that Pierce was selling Cardinal secrets to the Heart.” Jaeger’s gaze flicked briefly to Brooker before returning to Lira. “I didn’tknow what Brooker had really been doing for the rebellion, that he was working with Farrow.”
Lira’s mind raced, trying to piece together this new information with what she already knew. Her brother, living a double life under a false name, caught between two worlds.
“Shadera’s part of the contract was to kill him,” Jaeger went on, his tone matter-of-fact. “I would handle the rest with my contacts to complete the contract, which was to display his body in the center of the Heart as a warning to others who might consider informing on the rings.”
Lira’s stomach turned at the thought, bile rising in her throat. The cold brutality of it, the callousness with which her brother’s life had been bargained away.
“Farrow watched Shadera’s attack on Brooker from their meeting place,” Jaeger said. “She found him barely alive and was able to stop the bleeding, get a medic to him in time to save his life.” He paused, his eyes meeting Farrow’s across the table. “That’s when she called me and told me the truth about what was really happening in the Cardinal rings. That’s when we decided we needed to start working together, to share information so things like this wouldn’t happen again.”
Lira’s arm began to tremble, the weight of the gun pulling at her muscles.
“We were able to save his life,” Jaeger continued, “and he told us the contract most likely came from your father. But we needed to complete the rest of it to make sure he believed he was dead.”
Every word he spoke was a hammer against Lira’s already fracturing reality.
“We found a body,” he said, his voice flat. “From the Cardinal clinic, similar to the build of your brother’s. We took it, tattooed Brooker’s mark on his chest, then we beat it. Badly. Until it was unrecognizable.”
Lira’s stomach lurched. She didn’t want to hear this, didn’t want to know what came next. But Jaeger kept talking.
“We burned off the fingerprints. Pulled the teeth. Scalped it. Drained the blood, replaced it with Brooker’s. As close a match as they could make it to him.”
Each detail was a fresh horror, a new violation. Lira’s vision swam, nausea rising in her throat.
“I left the body in the Heart,” Jaeger finished. “The contract on top of it, and it was enough. Enough to convince your father it had been completed.”
Lira turned to Brooker, searching his face for a denial, for any sign that this was a lie. But his eyes met hers, solemn as he nodded once. Confirmation. Acknowledgment.
Finally, she lowered the gun as she turned back to Jaeger.
“And Greyson?” she asked, her voice sounding distant to her own ears. “What’s your excuse for accepting his contract?”
She needed to know. Needed to understand how the man who claimed to protect the rings, to fight for the people, could so easily trade her brother’s life for . . . for what? Money? Power?
Jaeger leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table, his scarred hands clasped before him. He met her gaze steadily, unflinching in the face of her anger, her devastation.
“A year after Brooker was presumed dead, he brought Mikel to me. Said he’d been acting as eyes and ears inside your father’s circles, feeding information to the rebellion. That he was willing to help us however he could.”
Jaeger paused, taking a coin out of his pocket and flipping it through his fingers as he sipped from his drink.
“Six months ago, Mikel presented us with an ultimatum. Said he’d only keep helping if we got Greyson out. Told us of his connection toGreyson, about the smuggling, that Maximus was beginning to get suspicious.”
Lira’s eyes flicked to Mikel as Jaeger continued. “We agreed to extract him, but we needed time to plan, to find a way that wouldn’t jeopardize the rebellion we were planning in the rings. We were still figuring out the logistics to get him out when the contract came. This time, there were no aliases, no smoke and mirrors. It was bought specifically for Greyson Serel, by an unknown Heart elite claiming they wanted change.”
Her stomach churned. Lira knew, with sickening certainty, where that contract had truly come from.
“But you knew it was from my father,” she said, her voice hollow.
Jaeger nodded grimly. “I took it to Brooker and Farrow immediately. We saw it for what it was—an opportunity. A way to get Greyson out without arousing suspicion.”
Her mind began to spiral as she tried to absorb it all. The secrets, the lies.
“The plan was to send Shadera in,” Jaeger continued, the coin dancing between his fingers. “I assigned it to her because she was the only one I trusted, the only one smart enough to have a chance at making it out of the Heart alive. Completing this contract would have to happen from inside.”
Jaeger glanced at Jameson, his expression hardening. “I had a choice to make—risk her life to get Greyson out, or lose our most important informant in the Heart. I chose the option that would save the most lives.”
