‘I’m so sorry for letting you down.’
Jaw gritted tight, Kade doesn’t look back, doesn’t trust himself to speak.
It’s only when he’s out of the room that he takes several deep breaths.
Luca is right there, hand on his shoulder.‘You OK?’
‘Fine.’Kade nods briskly, glances at the control panel.‘Drown him.’
?
Kade returns to the Watch so he can monitor Riley’s conversation with Lachlan after they swap over.By the time he gets up there, the Drowner is fully flooded.‘Drain it,’ he tells Cole, who controls it remotely.
The water drains fast.
Lachlan’s body chokes the water out from his lungs even faster.
The process looks painful, but Kade doesn’t care, too shaken by all he’s seen and heard.It’s not remotely surprising that drowning doesn’t kill him if bullets to the face didn’t.Unnerving, but not surprising.
Neither Cole nor Finn express their well-hidden fascination, nor do they voice any theories for which Kade is grateful.He watches the monitors in silence as Riley tells his escort to wait outside and then goes inside to speak with Lachlan.
The sun will rise in a couple of hours.
Kade needs to sleep, but he has to see this first.Among the numerous things Lachlan mentioned, “Harker”sticks out in Kade’s mind.
‘Volume up,’ he tells Finn.
Riley closes the door behind him, which locks heavily.Kade wishes he hadn’t done that but knows Riley’s predilection for privacy.
‘So,’ he says in open-ended greeting to Lachlan.‘You wanted me, I’m here.’
Kade leans closer.‘Zoom in a bit.’
Lachlan shakes his head, vaguely nonplussed.‘Who the fuck are you?’
‘Heard you were asking for me.’
Lachlan peers at Riley.‘You’re his son?’
‘I’m nobody’s son.’
‘You’re Troy Harker’s boy, aren’t you?The psycho.’
Riley remains unfazed.‘And you’re Lachlan James Tanner.’
‘Where is Troy Harker?’
‘Lachlan James Tanner enlisted at seventeen with his mother’s written consent.He was pulled out of infantry and moved into special operations early.Resolution Branch.Then, when honourably discharged, he transitioned into private security at twenty-three.Landed a five-year contract as primary bodyguard to the son of Alistair Penhalyx soon after.Full neutralisation authority.That contract never made it to renewal, though, did it?’
‘How do you know about RB?’
‘It’s in your file.’
‘That would never be in my file.Where is Troy?’
‘Your attempt to extract the Penhalyx kids from a kidnap scenario was unauthorised and when combat escalated, two bodies were recovered.You had a good lawyer, so it landed on manslaughter.You caught fourteen, served seven.Psych profile flags a dissociative calm under lethal stress, survivor’s wiring formed early by childhood instability.Compartmentalisation, emotional minimalism, and an unshakable drive to complete objectives regardless of personal cost.All in all,’ Riley says, reciting from memory because there’s nothing in his hands, ‘the perfect cocktail for a bodyguard.’
Lachlan stares.‘Apparently not.’
