Chapter 14: The Trap Turns

HENDRIX

That was enough.

I saw the change in him. I did not look away.

He moved around the desk slowly, and I had to keep myself from watching his shoulder too closely. The stitched wound sat under the bandage and made the line of his movement different than before. A little tighter and a little more controlled.

"You understand that if this is another game, you’ll regret it."

I tried to stay focused. "I'm aware."

He stopped in front of me.

Too close, close enough to remind me that he could close the distance whenever he wanted.

"Niko doesn't move without purpose," he said quietly. "If he's getting information, then someone inside my house is selling it."

He looked at me for a second, then turned back toward the desk.

I waited.

He was deciding.

That was obvious.

My mind kept touching the floor panel beneath the desk, the place where I knew the hidden access could exist, the place that might eventually lead me toward the Red Ledger.

Damn it. I had been so close.

Erdem reached for the phone on the desk and spoke without taking his eyes off the file in front of him.

"Konstantin. Bring me Niko Arzan's contact logs, the east wing rotation reports, and Damir."

He paused.

"Now."

Then he set the phone down and looked at me again.

I held still.

Then he said, "If someone is selling information to Niko, I want to know who, when, and what else they've touched."

I nodded as though that was all I expected.

It wasn’t.

He reached for another file, opened it, and glanced over the page.

Then he said the part I had not expected.

"You’re coming with me."

I blinked once before I could stop myself.

"To where?"

"Outside the estate."

My face went blank.

That was not what I had wanted.

Not at all.

My lie had been meant to trigger a raid, a sweep of the estate, movement through the lower levels, enough noise to create cover while I searched.

Instead he was taking me with him.

"Why?"

Erdem looked up from the file.

"Because if you heard something useful, then I want to know whether you heard it from a liar or a witness."

What, he had already decided to keep me close.

I forced myself to lower my gaze, as if accepting the decision with reluctant obedience.

Inside, I was already calculating what I’d lost and what I might gain.

If he took me with him, that meant I would not be searching the estate tonight.

But I would be closer to the routines he used outside it.

The routes, the meetings. The people he trusted when he left the house and perhaps more importantly, he would be watching me always.

The thought should have made me panic but it didn’t.

It made me sharper because now every step toward the ledger would bring me deeper under his eye and that meant I would have to be better than him.

Konstantin returned with the logs in hand and Damir behind him.

Erdem didn’t waste time.

He gave quick orders, each one clipped and exact, a team was going out and Niko's contact would be hunted down. The people around would be questioned.

And me—

He didn't look at me when he said it.

"Get him ready."

That was all.

I stood still while the order settled over me.

I had started this conversation to move him. Instead, he had moved me.

ERDEM

Hendrix had given me a story with three useful qualities.

It was simple and it was timely.

And it gave me a target outside the estate.

Niko Arzan.

Of course Niko Arzan.

Niko was the sort of man who would exploit information given to him. He would not care whether the source was loyal or desperate, only whether it was profitable.

"Why bring him?" Konstantin asked.

"Because I want to," I said.

Konstantin did not argue.

I turned to Hendrix. He was standing in the center of the study now, calm enough to annoy me.

I should have been irritated by how much I wanted to keep him near, instead I found the urge useful.

A man you trust can betray you, a man you suspect can still be useful and usefulness had always been the easiest way to keep people alive in my world.

I gave the order to move out.

Armed men gathered, the hallway beyond the study filled with motion. Konstantin coordinated the security team and Damir was sent ahead. The estate shifted into operational mode.

HENDRIX

A black armored car was waiting at the front steps.

He glanced toward me once.

"Move."

I did.

Of course I did.

I climbed in and sat where he indicated, opposite him, with two guards in the front and one more outside the compartment. The inside smelled medicinal from the first-aid kit tucked under the seat.

The door shut.

Erdem sat back and crossed one ankle over the other. There was a bandage under his shirt where the shoulder wound had been dressed. He moved like it still hurt, though only in the smallest ways.

I watched the reflection in the window beside me while the vehicle started moving.

The estate passed in fragments outside the tinted glass.

Erdem had not spoken yet.

I thought of the Red Ledger.

I thought of the lower vault.

I thought of how every step I took toward it now seemed to drag Erdem closer to me, as if the house had decided I could not want one thing without inviting him into the center of it.

That was the problem with lies.

They rarely stayed where you put them.

A man like Erdem would turn one story into a net if he thought it might catch something useful.

I glanced at him once, then away.

He turned his head toward the front of the car and spoke into the comm.

"Any sight of the Arzan contact?"

A voice crackled back through the speaker. "Negative. East route still clear, no movement on the logs yet."

Erdem's jaw tightened faintly.

"Keep the roads open. If they're feeding Niko, I want them nervous before I question them."