“Yes,” I say slowly. “He delivered thethreat. He scared her. Cornered her. Tried to assert control he didn’t have. He wasn’t the one calling the shots.”
“And he wasn’t the one who took her,” Conrad adds. “He’s just the tool that the Broker used in order to do it.”
“And we were the ones who pulled her off it,” I remind them. “She never would have escaped if we hadn’t found her.”
Storm leans in. “So the Broker—if that’s who this is—didn’t lose an asset. He lost a transaction. More than one transaction, judging from the number of people who climbed down those ladders.”
“Exactly.” I circle words on the page again.Debt. Father. Unknown Buyer. Danner. Shipment. Titan-Wynn. “We interrupted a deal we didn’t know existed and claimed Phoenix as ours instead of letting her be sold.”
Maverick’s jaw tightens. “We’re missing something. Her father made a deal withheras the bargaining chip.”
“And that means whoever was expecting her?” My voice goes flat. “They aren’t going to forget about her. And they aren’t going to give up. Giving up means losing, and absolutely no one in any position of power likes losing.”
“Correct, but wait, there’s more. Hear me out here—why Phoenix?” Maverick asks. “Her father owes money. She’s the payment. We offer to pay it. Rejected. Soundly rejected, to the point where we have all this business going on.” He makes a sweeping gesture. “It has to be about more than paying a debt. There has to be something special about Phoenix, something personal. If we want to figure out who this mysterious…head honcho…is, that’s what we have to figure out.”
We’re all silent for a moment, considering.
“This was a true moment of brilliance for you, Mav,” Con murmurs.
Maverick preens. “I know.”
I write three more words and underline them.
Debts. Power. Ownership.
Con breaks the silence. “So what’s our angle?”
“Patterns,” I say. “We go backward and forward. Trace Danner’s movements. His comms. Any unexplained income. Then map itagainst her father’s collapse. See who had the most to gain—or the most to lose.”
Maverick groans. “Man, please don’t say the word ‘map’ again today.”
Storm’s mouth barely twitches. “He’s absolutely going to say it again.”
“I am,” I say calmly, “because the bastard left trails he didn’t hide as well as he thinks.”
We gather around the table and begin the hunt with a different angle in mind. Beneath all of it, one truth thrums like a pulse: someone out there still wants what he thinks he’s owed, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
Her.
Phoenix.
That’s fine, though.
We understand, and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.
Phoenix is only a room away. Safe—for now. Healing.
We won’t let anyone steal her from us again.
But we all feel it—the person who bought her father’s debt isn’t done.
That just means that neither are we.
Because there’s something that no one ever understands. One of us being obsessed? That can be managed… but all four of the Titans together?
Phoenix doesn’t just belong to us. We belong to her, and we’ll destroy anything and anyone who tries to stand in the way of that.
A soft motion on the feed catches my attention—Phoenix shifting on the bed in her room, running her fingers along Zeus’s fur like she’s grounding herself. She stares toward the window, toward the water she hasn’t stepped near since we brought her here.
