Oh yes, he had a lot of emotions to work through when his traitor arrived.
Only Harlow, Roake’s Overlord, and Caius’s closest guards knew where he’d gone.Harlow wouldn’t have betrayed Caius.That left his guards.Men and women who’d served at his side for over a century.
Betrayal always stung.This one more than most.
The chains clinked as Caius shifted, trying to get as comfortable as his injuries would allow.This could take a while.Good thing he was the patient sort.
Gus
Gus stared at Brooks once he got finished with his explanation.“How sure are you about this?”
“Pretty sure.Saw the kid with my own eyes.It’s the same boy who was with the Phoenix on Titan.She called him Jin.”
There was only one person Kira would have called by that name.
Jin, himself.
Did Ryan know what those two had done?Did the rest of the forty-three?
Unconsciously, Gus quickened her pace.She hoped not.Mars and Cleo’s actions proved the forty-three were no longer trustworthy.
If this news got out…
Gus shuddered.
Thistle vines and ballycock burs.There was no telling what would happen.
“Funny thing is—all the stories about the Phoenix places her with a companion at her side.A drone.A J1N.”Brooks glanced at Gus out of the corner of his eye.“They say she called it Jin.Quite the coincidence, don’t you think?”
Gus slowed.
Realizing she was no longer beside him, Brooks sent her a questioning look.
“You seem to know a lot about the Phoenix,” Gus said.
A littletoomuch, if you asked her.
Jin’s connection to Kira wasn’t exactly a secret but few had ever bothered learning his name.Only those close to her.For everyone else, he was always the drone.Or that thing.Sometimes J-1-N.Never Jin.
He was a tool.A machine.Things like that didn’t need names.
Brooks cocked his head, his expression easy.“Didn’t you know?Our paths crossed a time or two during the war.”
“Did they?”
Gus narrowed her eyes.He was playing games with her.
Brooks was too observant not to have picked up on her sudden tension or the way she was eyeing him like he might be a hidden enemy.
“We served on a couple of the same ships,” Brooks admitted.
“I didn’t know that.”
Granted, a lot of Brooks’s history before he came to her was sealed off and inaccessible.She’d always assumed that was because he worked in black ops.
And maybe he had.Just a little closer to Kira than she previously suspected.
The way he spoke, the confidence, it suggested a knowledge of her sister and her habits that didn’t come from passing acquaintance.It pointed to close study.The kind you did when you were assessing a person’s weaknesses.Getting to know them and what made them tick so you could take them down later if need be.
