Page 29 of Bound

The next line loads slowly, as if Carlos wants every word to have teeth.

THE MORETTIS MAY HAVE SENT HER

My stomach drops. Lucian knew what direction this would go. He wanted to save me from the shame that flows through me, now.

Another line appears.

I CHOSE HER TO SEND

I KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE

The room goes to another level of silence. The kind that presses against your chest making it hard to breathe.

Carlos worked through the Morettis. Carlos was behind the first night.

He knew me. He knew Caleb.

Somehow, the two are connected more deeply than I could have imagined.

Caleb, Carlos, the Morettis and their whispered instructions. Beneath my desperation, Lucian’s arrogance, and the transaction I have spent months trying to turn into something real.

He did not force me through Lucian’s door.

But he knew Caleb, knew the path he made for us, the one that made me desperate enough to walk through that door with the fob in my hand.

The screen changes again.

A message thread.

Moretti names. Payment routes. A reference to “the girl.” A note about the fob. A line about using family pressure.

Cass. Ryan. Debts.

A final instruction:

SEND HER TO LUCIAN

SHE’S THE PERFECT REPLACEMENT

Someone swears. Maybe Blaze.

Maybe it’s me.

Lucian reaches for me. I step away before he touches me. His face changes as if I struck him.

But I can’t let him hold me right now.

Not with Isobel in the room. Not with my betrayal lit up for the entire room to remember.

I came to Lucian as the enemy’s delivery girl. I came to him with soft skin, a cheap dress, and a threat in my hand.

I came to ruin him.

My eyes move to Isobel before I can stop them. She is staring at the screen, pale and still.

Of course she sees it.

Of course she understands.