“Yes.”
I study the images again. They aren’t polished enough to be professionals, and not careless enough to be dismissed. Leon is angry. Men like him always mistake visibility for pressure. They want us to see them. They want Maya to feel them circling the gates, the children to sense the house changing around them.
They want fear to arrive before they do.
“How long?” I ask.
Omar’s jaw flexes. “The Boston contact moved the meeting.”
“Of course he did.”
“Tomorrow night.”
The five-day window disappears with two words.
There is no surprise in it. Leon has lost women, money, men, and control of his children in the same week. A man built on ownership cannot tolerate that kind of loss without forcing movement. He will make himself harder to predict because uncertainty is the only thing he has left to sell.
“Raven?” I ask.
“Her team can be in place.” Omar gives me a flat look. “She is prepared. She is also furious.”
“Raven is usually furious.”
“She was particularly displeased when I mentioned you intended to bring Maya.”
I lean back in my chair. “Then she understands how I feel most days.”
Omar does not smile.
He has been in a foul mood since last night, which is impressive considering he wakes in one. He saw Maya leave my room before dawn, robe pulled tight around her body, face composed badly enough that anyone with eyes would have known she had been crying. He didn't ask what happened.
Omar has survived this long because he understands when silence serves better than loyalty.
But he folds his arms now and looks at me across the desk.
“Are you going to tell her?”
“She knows we are leaving.”
“She knows the date changed?”
“No.”
“She will.”
“Yes.”
For a moment, he says nothing. The house moves quietly around us. Somewhere downstairs, Dolores is in the kitchen. Dishes touch softly. Erin’s voice rises, bright and unrestrained, followed by Heath correcting some version of a story with the solemn conviction of someone personally offended by inaccurate details.
Omar glances toward the closed door.
“The children are safer here,” he says.
“Yes.”
“They are also targets now.”
“Yes.”
