"What?"
"The staff at the penthouse. The maids. The chef. The dog walker we don't even use. Fire them all."
"Boss, who’s going to clean? Who’s going to cook?"
"I don't care," I snap. "I want the apartment empty. Just the medical team. And put a jammer on their phones. No signals in or out of the guest wing."
"You’re locking it down tight."
"O’Malley knew," I say. "Someone talked."
"Shit. Okay. I’ll clear them out within the hour."
"And Luca?"
"Yeah?"
"Find out who O’Malley was talking to. He didn't come up with that 'soft' speech on his own. Someone put a battery in his back."
"You think there's a bigger fish?"
"There's always a bigger fish."
I hang up.
I pull up the live feed of the penthouse on my monitor.
Ivy is in the library. She is curled up in a leather chair, a book open on her lap. She isn't reading. She is staring out the window at the gray sky.
She looks small. Sad.
She hates me right now. I know she does. She hates the restrictions. She hates the apples. She hates the cage.
But she is safe.
I zoom in on her face.
I touch the screen.
"I will be the villain," I whisper to the pixels. "I will be the tyrant. I will be whatever I have to be to keep that heart beating."
My computer chimes. A secure email.
I frown. It’s encrypted. The sender is anonymous.
I open it.
There is no text. Just an attachment.
An audio file.
I click play.
The sound of static fills the office. Then, voices.
"He’s losing it,"a voice says. It sounds like O’Malley, but younger. Clearer.
"The girl is the anchor,"another voice replies. I don't recognize this one. It’s smooth. Educated."She makes him heavy."
