Rather than seeming abashed, Thorne rolled his eyes. “He’ll help no matter what—same as you will.”
“And why do you think we’ll help?” Sirena countered, folding her fingers together on the table.
One corner of Thorne’s lips pulled up, revealing teeth like a white picket fence, punctuated by a fang. “Because you’re not me.”
By which he meant thatshewas good.
Iwas discounted.
I shouldn’t have been.
The pendant cam rose and lowered as Sirena huffed a sigh—and I decided to take control. “Chain of custody. Now,” I told her. “We bag every shard and take it to HQ.”
She didn’t nod, but her fingers were already reaching for evidence bags in her jacket. Professional.
I kept going, still only to her: “Even smashed, it talks. Epoxy formulation is a signature. Flux residue narrows the solder line. Coil alloy and wind count trace the feedstock. Adhesive chemistry gives me supplier. Tool marks say hand-fit or line-placed. If any mask survived, I could batch the fab. I’ll pull it apart until it confesses.”
Sirena slid two bags across the table, calm as rain. “I’m taking this with me,” she said to Thorne. “All of it.”
He grunted assent.
Sophia waited, small and silent. I’m not provisioned forwant,and yet: want detected.
I wanted Sirena to stand, for us to walk out, and I could take the tracker’s wreckage and make it confess.
But Sirena’s curiosity is a gravity well.
She wouldn’t choose escape velocity.
“We should sweep the girl again. Visual here. Full scan at HQ. Shoulders, scalp, nape, soles.”
Sirena shook her head; I saw it in the cam’s slight wobble. “Put your hands out on the table,” she told the woman, and the woman did as she was told.
4 /SIRENA
Sophia puther hands out timidly. “Will it . . . hurt?”
It took maximal effort not to let out a small laugh before Thorne cut me off.
“I know what I’m asking of you, Sirena.”
He knew it would hurt—me—because he’d seen me do it before.
I did my best to give the other woman a warm smile. “Nah. I’m a professional.”
Plus, it’d be easier if I didn’t have to argue with her mind, if all her doors were open.
Which, if her story was true, they should be.
Thorne was smart. Every other avenue he’d run down had to have come up empty before he reached out to me. He’d have had too much pride to ask me otherwise.
Because after this, he’d owe me, and he was not the type of man who wanted to owe anyone.
So I took both of her hands in my own and gave them a little squeeze. Skin on skin with the crown on was fine, and it was good to anchor myself first. Kept all the other voices a little at bay.
“I couldn’t close the club for you—doing that would attract suspicion. And I couldn’t bring Sophia to you because she hasn’t left these walls since she got here. I couldn’t take the risk of her being spotted,” Thorne continued.
Nex’s voice was softer in my ear. “You don’t have to do this, Sirena.”
