Page 43 of Bound

“And because the last two texts you sent me were,” she blushes, “one asking for very inappropriate images of yours truly, and then the last one—you texted⁠—”

Blaze interjects. “Alive, busy, likely murder later, LOVE YOU all caps? Was it that one that did the trick?”

She’s much shorter than he is and she has to tilt her head to stare up at him. “Precisely.”

Then Cleo looks at the screen.

Her smile fades. “This is about the Village.”

Not a question. Blaze’s arm tightens around her. “Yes. Among other, trivial things.”

She knows what the Village means. She knows what loving a Bachman man costs her. Her love for Blaze is written all over the way she stands there: a good girl, a brave girl with a terrified heart, still walking straight into the room with the monsters.

Or, as Erin likes to think of us, monster slayers.

She steps closer.

“What do you need?”

Blaze brings her back, saying, “You need to rest.”

“No.” She looks at the maps. “I need to know what I can do.”

Blaze opens his mouth.

She turns to him. “Give me a moment. Please.”

His mouth closes for the first time since we arrived, happily replaced with a lopsided grin.

Erin murmurs, “I don’t think it works on Lucian.”

Rafe brings us back. “Carlos has gone quiet since the last message.”

“Quiet is not peace,” I say.

“No,” Rafe agrees. “Quiet is an invitation to make the first move.”

Cleo frowns at the screen. “Then don’t chase the noise.”

Every man looks at her.

She stiffens but does not retreat. “I’m not a strategist. I teach kids for a living. But when a child acts out for attention, you don’t chase every little thing. You watch the pattern. Figure out what they want you to do. Then don’t do that very thing.”

Silence.

Blaze looks at her like she hung the moon and loaded it with ammunition all at once. He leans down, scooping her up into his arms. “That’s my girl,” he says, kissing her softly.

Gregory leans in. “She’s right. The first move could be the wrong one.”

Rafe nods slowly. “Carlos wants movement. Panic. Overcorrection. He has attacked Marina, thrown what was to be emotional warfare on Lucian.”

Gregory adds, poetically, “He wants you doubting every beginning before he makes his final move.”

“Your education wasn’t wasted,” I say, trying to think.

Erin studies the map. “So we don’t chase the message.”

“We find where the message came from. Then, attack.”