The line went dead.
“Noah never calls.” Scarlett stared at her phone. “He texts, but he doesn’t call.”
“And he’s never panicked.” It was too emotional. “It feels staged.”
“I don’t think so.” Scarlett pocketed her phone. “I don’t think it was fake.”
“He’s fooled you before.”
“True.” She glanced around the room, as though she were running calculations. “But my gut tells me he’s genuinely worried this time.”
I exhaled slowly. Scarlett’s instincts had saved us more times than I could count. As much as I distrusted Noah, I trusted her judgment. But my job was still our team’s security. “So what’s his angle? Why warn us to stay away?”
“He thinks we sent the Carabinieri. Maybe they suspect it was a salvo?”
Did that make sense? We disrupt their communications and file storage with Brie’s virus. We send in the police when Fenix is weak. “Or they think Brie got all of their information when she hacked their server at Mnemis, and they don’t know how much of it was corrupted?”
“I don’t know.” Scarlett pushed off my desk and walked toward the bookcase. “He could be playing both sides. Could have developed a conscience. Could genuinely be warning us to stay away.”
“Or he’s tempting us to head there because he’s already got a plan on how to use us again.”
Noah had conned us into doing his dirty work in England, Rome, Washington, and Monaco. He’d been Scarlett’s number two at Reynolds for years and knew exactly how to play all of us.
“It’s a trap,” I said, in case she wasn’t listening closely enough.
Scarlett adjusted one of the photos on the shelf, of us with Declan, when they’d graduated from college. My leave schedule had worked out perfectly, and I’d surprised them on their big day. “Whatever they mean when they say the phoenix will rise, they’re going to do it soon.”
“He said it would be a demonstration. That means public. And if they’re trying to prove its healing capabilities?—”
“They’ll need a subject.”
“Just one?”
She turned to face me. “They’ve been working in the shadows too long. If they’re finally coming out into the open, it’s going to be significant.”
“‘People are going to die,’ he said. How many?”
Scarlett’s face hardened. “I need to go to Naples. Find out what Fenix is planning. If the police can’t?—”
“You’re not going anywhere without me.” The words came automatically, the protective instinct that had defined our relationship since we were kids, unaltered by time. “But first we need to talk to the team.”
“And Pendragon. Because we sure as hell didn’t contact the Carabinieri.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.” I stood, moving to the door to open it for her. “If Pendragon knew about Naples before they arrived this morning, they’re holding things back.”
“Let’s find out what.” Scarlett put a hand up to stop me from opening the door. “And Rav? Can you work with Brooke?”
Visions flipped through my brain. Steadying her when an unidentified truck approached our convoy. Her muttering chemical formulas when she was stressed. The chill that wrapped around my heart when I saw her name on my phone for the last time.
I wasn’t that man anymore, and she wasn’t that woman.
It was a lifetime ago.
“I’ll do what needs to be done.” It wasn’t a direct answer, but it was the only one I had.
Scarlett nodded, but didn’t challenge my evasion. “That’s why I need you in Naples. Whatever happens, I know you’ll have my back.”
“Always.” That was the one promise I’d never broken and never would. “But for the record, I still think it’s a trap. You don’t leave my sight.”
