It won’t be anywhere near as secure.
‘Where is he housing guests?’
‘South Wing.’
‘Will he let me post day guards to the entrance of the East Wing, do you think?’he asks Fenwick, who simply shakes his head.‘We have to prioritise,’ Lachlan says, itching to go punch something.‘The kids have to be—’
‘Mikhail Sorrenko is staying for a month,’ Fenwick interrupts, taps the paper in the centre.‘Sorrenko is also bringing both his sons, Roman and Vasily.Ariadne Alderwyck is bringing her daughter, Savannah.I’ve worked for Alderwyck before.She’s…’
‘What?’
‘Operational blue-on-blue,’ Fenwick answers, cleverly adapting military code for their needs.Lachlan takes it to mean she’s a massive fucking liability.
‘Great.’
‘It’s not ideal, I know.’
‘Not ideal?This is a nightmare situation.I can’t protect additional kids.’
‘They’re Julian’s age if that helps.’
It doesn’t.‘This is fucking bullshit.’
‘Tanner.’
Lachlan’s heart lurches wildly, skips several beats, fists balled so tight his nails break the skin of his palm.
‘He’s putting them in danger on purpose as punishment.’
‘Take a breath,’ Fenwick says, forcing him to sit.‘Stoptalking.’
It’s good advice.Penhalyx hears everything, they all know it.
But Lachlan has never wanted to kill someone this badly.
The killer inside him hungers to end the life of Alistair Penhalyx and then steal those kids away forever.
Fenwick is kneeling before him which Lachlan would much rathernotthink about because he’s still doing everything he can to forget what he walked in on months ago, but he opens his eyes when he feels the movement of fingers.Lachlan looks down, prepared to break Fenwick’s nose if he thinks they’redoing anythingtogether again, but instead he finds Fenwick speaking in very basic sign language.
The one camera in this room is directly behind him.
‘Get yourself together,’ Fenwick says, meanwhile his hands say,If it comes down to it,‘We can coordinate it if we bring new people in and have Carrigan vet them.’and the eldest boy is put in danger,‘I know it’s tough but you’re a professional.’…you should let him die.Fenwick rises to stand.‘Act like it.’
?
Why Fenwick would want Lachlan to let one of Sorrenko’s sons die, he’ll never understand.For now, he puts it out of his mind and focuses on the children.He sees less of Jules than he ever has since signing the contract.
Mimi misses her big brother fiercely.
What little Lachlan does see of Jules worries him deeply.He may not exactly like this pain in the ass kid, but he cares about him.All the painstaking progress of this past year is cruelly undone.Jules turns skinny, loses the light in his eyes, the fire.He’s placid, submissive and joyless, dressed like a doll, styled like one.Completely controlled.
‘Has it ever been like this before?’Lachlan asks Blaire one night when they find a scrap of time to eat together.
‘Clara told me when he was fourteen something similar happened but not on this scale,’ she answers, scrolling notifications on her tablet even while they eat.The work never ends in this place.
‘How are you doing?’
She looks up.
