“I think Courier is already too close,” he says. “I think he watched my people grow lazy. I think he counted on them to miss the small cuts. I don’t intend to give him that satisfaction again.”
“You’re not used to being wrong,” I say.
“No,” he says. “That’s why you interest me.”
“How flattering,” I say dryly.
He smiles. This time, it’s real. Brief, but real.
“You spoke to me in there the way men twice your size are afraid to speak,” he says. “You didn’t flinch when you said I once owned a killer and lost him. You didn’t pretend you weren’t afraid. You just kept talking.”
“My knees are shaking,” I say. “You just can’t see it from there.”
He looks down. My legs are steady.
“You lie well,” he says.
“I practice,” I say.
He laughs under his breath.
“Last chance to walk away, Raina,” he says. “If you stay, this binds you. You work for me. You answer to me. You don’t speak of what you see. You don’t run data for anyone else. You don’t leak anything. Not a file, not a joke, not a story.”
“And if I say no?” I ask.
“You leave with what you know in your head,” he says. “That’s already more than I should allow.”
“So you’d kill me,” I say.
His eyes are calm.
“If I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be upstairs,” he says.
That’s true, and we both know it.
“So you’d watch me,” I say.
“I already watch you,” he says.
Heat moves through me at that. Simple words. Heavy weight.
“Will you tell me the real reason you picked me?” I ask. “I know I’m good. I’m not the only one who can read a log.”
“No,” he says. “You’re not.”
“So, why me?” I push.
He studies my face for a long time before he answers.
“You saw Courier’s drift from a thin copy of my archive,” he says. “You felt the shift in his work. That matters to me.”
“That’s the business reason,” I say.
“Yes,” he says. “The other reason is simpler. You walked into a room full of my men, looked me in the eye, and told me I’d lost control of something I built. You didn’t flatter me. You didn’t soften it. You gave me the truth. I value that.”
“You value control more,” I say.
“I value both,” he says. “Stay, and you learn how I keep them.”
