LOGINChapter 205They were gathered in the corner suite of the hotel Janet's mother owned. Jackson and Liam had gutted and rebuilt these rooms three years back, and the place still smelled faintly of fresh paint when the heat kicked on.Morgana settled back into her chair. "Name's Henri Belloc. French. Runs an independent news outlet out of Brussels, reaches about three million readers. And here's the thing that matters. Zero ties to American political donors. Haddon's people can't touch him."Jackson turned the word over in his head. "Brussels."Morgana kept going. "Can't buy him, can't scare him either. Back in 2019 he wrote a piece naming a sitting French minister in a money laundering scheme. The minister sued him and lost. Guy's serving twelve years now. Henri doesn't scare easy. And he owes me a big favor."Liam spoke from the kitchenette in the corner. "Seems like everyone owes you a favor."Morgana smirked. "That's right. Twenty years of being useful, you don't get through that wit
204 Liam's POV Janet at three in the morning was something I had witnessed twice before and was always slightly awed by. She didn't get frantic. She got precise. She pulled information from sources with the calm efficiency of someone running a library search rather than a crisis, and she built what she built without explaining it until it was done, which was the most efficient approach and the most nerve-wracking. Morgana sat at the table with her. At some point around two a.m., they started trading information in a way that suggested they had arrived at some form of mutual professional respect, which, given the circumstances, was remarkable. Jackson was on his phone in the corner with a board member named Patricia Ellison, who was apparently awake because she had a toddler with an ear infection and answered his call with "Please tell me this is actually important and not more Jefferson nonsense." I was tracking Carter Wells. I had a contact in the financial intelligence world
203 Jackson's POV I called my lawyer instantly, as Morgana said he could be the one. Anyone could be right on this case, but what was different was the fact that things could never be the same if it was the person that I felt something for. Yes, Liam could be right too. But I believed so much that Avery wouldn't want to cause the family another pain by being an informant for a clown who portrayed himself as a good person; instead, he wanted to take the company away from us. Greedy old fucking arsehole! The phone rang, and I thought he wouldn't pick up. "You could be right on this one," I said, as Morgana felt that she was finally being seen and could be a useful tool for us all. Liam leaned forward. "Yeah, I could put all my money on that too; those white-collar lawyers aren't really being honest with us all." I really wanted to kiss his lips right now, but that would feel odd at this moment, wouldn't it? Theodore Marsh picked up on the third ring, which told me he was awake, wh
202Liam's POVI didn't sleep.That wasn't a metaphor or a dramatic statement.I literally did not sleep.I sat at the kitchen island with my laptop open and three separate document tabs running and a coffee that went cold somewhere around midnight, and I built a timeline.Not because Jackson asked me to. Because it was the only way my brain would stop spinning long enough to be useful.The timeline went like this.2001: James Carly appears inside Maddox Corporation through the Reyes family. Nobody questions it because the Reyes family is old money and their referrals don't get questioned. Carly spends the next eleven years building financial architecture that everyone thinks serves West Ark and actually serves something underneath West Ark that nobody can see.2003: The Delaware LLC. The same entity that Gerald Whitmore flagged. The same entity that Avery found connecting Marcus Jefferson's investment firm to a subsidiary of Maddox Corporation that no longer exists.2012: Carly "disa
Jackson's POVThere is something about a prison that gets into your bones before you even walk through the gates.It is not just the barbed wire, the guard towers, or the way the concrete seems to absorb every bit of warmth from the air around it. It is the weight of the place.The knowledge that every person inside those walls is there because someone decided they had to be separated from the rest of the world. And that decision, right or wrong, changes the shape of the air you breathe.I had been inside exactly once before. Three weeks ago.My lawyer dragged me through a side entrance that smelled like bleach and stale coffee, and we spent eleven minutes signing paperwork that officially confirmed my father had been remanded without bail.I did not look at Richard Maddox (my father) during that visit. Not once.I kept my eyes on the forms and my signature tight and controlled, and when I walked out I told myself I had not seen a thing.That the man on the other side of that glass wa
Third person's POV The prison visiting room smelled like industrial cleaning solution and decades of bad decisions.Liam Sinclair sat across from his father at 7:15 PM. The table between them was bolted to the floor. The guard by the door was watching them with the particular attention reserved for inmates whose charges involved federal conspiracy and attempted murder.Astor Sinclair looked smaller than Liam remembered. Not diminished. His father would never be diminished. But compressed somehow. Like the walls of the cell were already reshaping him into something that fit their dimensions."You came," Astor said. His voice was neutral. Neither pleased nor surprised."I need information," Liam said flatly. "You're the only person who might have it."Astor's mouth curved slightly. Not quite a smile. "Straight to business. I taught you that.""You taught me a lot of things." Liam's tone didn't change. "Most of them wrong."The guard shifted position slightly. Astor ignored him."Wha
Third Person's POVLiam woke up slowly, awareness returning in pieces. Warmth. Softness. The faint smell of Jackson's cologne mixed with sweat. He opened his eyes and found they were both still naked, tangled together in sheets that had been kicked halfway off the bed during the night.The memories
Third person's POV Liam made dinner that neither of them ate. The pasta sat cooling on the stove, untouched, the smell of garlic and tomatoes fading into the background. Jackson tried to work on the estate company documents, laptop open on the coffee table, but after twenty minutes of staring at t
Third Person's POVLiam gripped the steering wheel as they drove through the city toward downtown, the morning traffic thick and sluggish. Jackson sat in the passenger seat staring out the window, his jaw tight with tension that had nothing to do with the search for Avery and everything to do with
Third Person's POV Mexico City Police Precinct Eve Dove sat in the cramped conference room surrounded by maps, surveillance photos, and the distinctive smell of too many people working too many hours without sleep. Kingsley was to her left, his laptop open with multiple screens running facial rec







