“But what about Grayson Calhoun? Knox?” I ask, desperate.
Dave’s eyes go colder.
“Grayson Calhoun… is their head,” he says.
The words don’t compute.
I stare at him like I’ve forgotten English.
“What?”
Dave holds my gaze. Doesn’t blink.
“He’s the one holding the leash,” Dave says quietly. “And his bodyguards are his dogs.”
My chest caves.
“No,” I say, and it comes out small. “No, you don’t know… Gray sent Knox. Knox saved me. He…”
“You think they didn’t plan that?” Dave snaps, still keeping his voice low, controlled. “You think you’re the first person they’ve ‘protected’ into obedience?”
My skin prickles.
My brain flashes to Knox’s hands. Knox’s mouth. Knox’s voice in the dark telling me I was safe.
A man like Knox doesn’t do softness by accident.
A man like Knox doesn’t look at me like I’m the only woman on earth if he’s not feeling something.
Unless…
Unless it’s a job.
Unless I’m the asset, and he’s just good at what he does.
My stomach twists hard.
I hate that my mind even goes there.
I hate that the ugliest part of me, the part that Cole fed for years, rises up and whispers:
Of course it wasn’t real. Why would it be?
I swallow, throat raw.
“Sierra,” he cuts in, and now his voice is all command. Military. Familiar. The tone that used to make me listen even when I didn’t want to. “We need to leave without them knowing.”
My mouth goes dry.
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper, even as part of me does.
“You know me,” he says. “You’ve known me your whole life. You think I’d lie to you about this?”
I flinch because he’s right.
He’s my uncle in every way that mattered.
The man my father trusted.
