The accusation lands clean. She's not wrong. Whatever web is tangling around us, my past is part of its weave.
"Sera—"
"No." She holds up a hand, stopping me. "I need to think. I need to process what you're telling me. Because an hour ago, I thought this was about my father's business. I thought I was in danger because of who he is and what he does. Now you're telling me that the people who tried to kill us are connected to something you did years before I even met you."
"The connection isn't that simple?—"
"Then explain it to me." Her green eyes blaze. "Explain how your compromised operation and my father's marker and the people who just tried to murder us on your boat are all part of the same picture. Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you didn't just owe my father a debt. It looks like you brought your own enemies to my doorstep."
I don't have an answer for that. Because she might be right.
Priest steps forward, his voice quiet but firm. "Ms. Mancini, if there's blame to assign here, it belongs to me. Ford was a young operator caught in a situation that should never have existed. I made the choice to bury that evidence. I made the choice to involve your father. Every domino that's fallen since then traces back to decisions I made twelve years ago."
Sera stares at him for a long moment. Then she turns and disappears below deck without a word.
We anchorin a protected cove that Cal knows, far from the main channels and shielded from observation by a thick stand of live oaks. Priest and Mace set up a secure communication array on Second Watch's deck while I try to figure out how to fix what's breaking between Sera and me.
She hasn't spoken to me in two hours.
She sat through the rest of the briefing in silence, asking occasional questions of Priest and Mace but refusing to meet my eyes. When the tactical discussion ended, she retreated below deck without a word.
"Give her time." Cal stands beside me at the stern, watching the sun sink toward the horizon. "She just found out the situation is more complicated than she thought."
"She's not wrong to be angry."
"Didn't say she was." He leans against the rail, his posture deceptively casual. "But anger isn't the same as done. She's processing. When she's ready, she'll talk."
Priest approaches, his footsteps nearly silent on the deck. "Ford. A word?"
I follow him to the bow, away from the others. The evening light catches the sharp planes of his face, making him look older than I remember.
"I owe you an apology." His voice is quiet. "Twelve years ago, I told myself I was helping you. Saving your career, maybe your life. But the truth is, I was using you. Using your situation to accomplish my own objectives. I should have found another way."
"Would there have been another way?"
"I don't know." He's silent for a moment. "I've spent twenty years making decisions like that one. Weighing costs and benefits. Sacrificing pieces to save the board. I told myself it was necessary. That the ends justified the means." His pale eyes meet mine. "I'm not sure I believe that anymore."
"What changed?"
"I got old." The ghost of a smile crosses his face. "And I started counting the bodies. Not the ones I put in the ground directly, but the ones that fell because of choices I made. Dominoes I set in motion without caring where they'd land." He looks toward the cabin hatch where Sera disappeared. "She's right to be angry. At both of us."
"I didn't know?—"
"You didn't ask. Neither did I, most of the time." Priest turns back to face the water. "But we're here now. And I intend to clean up my own mess. Whatever it takes."
The cabin hatch opens.
Sera emerges into the fading light, her face composed in a way I'm starting to recognize. The mask she wears when she's trying not to feel something.
"We should talk." Her voice is flat. Controlled.
"Yeah."
She moves past Priest without acknowledgment, heading for the stern. I follow, keeping distance between us that feels like miles instead of feet.
"I've been thinking." She stares out at the water, arms wrapped around herself despite the warmth of the evening. "About what Priest said. About the connections between your operation and whatever's happening now."
"Sera, I swear I didn't know?—"
