Home / Romance / The Captain's Forbidden Mate / CHAPTER 91: WHAT WE DO NEXT

Share

CHAPTER 91: WHAT WE DO NEXT

Author: Alison Hart
last update publish date: 2026-09-23 00:21:03

LENA

We spent three days confirming everything we suspected while keeping a close eye on the fourth property, cross-referencing everything while studying the quiet, wooded estate from all angles, until the connections to Elias Marlow felt as inevitable as anything this investigation had uncovered so far.

We still had to ask ourselves the more tangible question that we hadn't wanted to confront, not even as we came to terms with the evidence. The one that had stayed the quiet, simmering concern
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 93: TESTING THORNE

    LENAWe met Thorne at the same ranger station, the cold and silence having grown familiar around us by now, and Aiden was prudent and only shared fragments of information we had collected, rather than the whole we had offered Okafor."We have a name," Aiden said, "of someone associated with what happened twentytwo years prior, and we wanted to know if it would ring any bells with you."Thorne's expression was carefully controlled, and he watched Aiden warily."Elias Marlow," Aiden said, watching him intently.For just a moment, some deep emotion flickered behind Thorne's gaze, too fast to be anything but certain that you had seen it correctly"That name means something to you."Thorne was quiet for a long moment, and some calculation played out behind his keen, careful eyes. "It might. I knew a man once for brief amount of time before everything unraveled, but he kept his personal details close and went always by E. Marlow, for all intents and purposes. The look in his eyes is familia

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 92: OKAFOR'S ANSWER

    COLEWe found Okafor at a different location this time, a trailhead several hours from campus. It wasn't far enough to draw attention entirely, but just far enough away that she couldn't be seen leaving or entering by any chance.She seemed thinner than the last time we'd seen her, but there was also a certain resilience to the manner in which she carried herself"Elias Marlow," she said, after we'd given her our information. "I don't know him personally, but I know a man like him when I see one. He's been a part of several council meetings in the past, but I've never quite been able to put my finger on what it is exactly that he does.""Would you be willing to present this to the council?" Aiden asked, once he was sure she'd caught everything. "Formally?"Okafor was silent for a long time, considering the questionYes, I believe I will. I've been waiting for something substantial enough to warrant the risk, and this will have to doThere was a palpable sense of relief that spread thr

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 91: WHAT WE DO NEXT

    LENAWe spent three days confirming everything we suspected while keeping a close eye on the fourth property, cross-referencing everything while studying the quiet, wooded estate from all angles, until the connections to Elias Marlow felt as inevitable as anything this investigation had uncovered so far.We still had to ask ourselves the more tangible question that we hadn't wanted to confront, not even as we came to terms with the evidence. The one that had stayed the quiet, simmering concern at the back of our discussions."We can't just walk up and knock," Noah said, only half-jokingly as he stood where the group had gathered once more into our library. "Either way, whatever we do next has to actually work.""Agreed," Aiden said. "Which means we really need to consider what working means in this instance. Exposure? Justice via the council? Something else more direct?""Exposure requires proof the council can't ignore," Astra said. "Everything we have is compelling to us. Whether it

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 90: A NAME REMEMBERED

    COLEDamien called before I had even finished my coffee, his voice sharp with something that sounded a lot like shock."Everyone knows it," he said without preamble, "Elias Marlow. He went very, very quiet when I mentioned it, very quiet in a way I haven't seen from him since our conversation in his study.""Wanted to know what he said?" I asked, my hand already moving towards Lena, who had gone rigid next to me the moment he had heard the change in my voice."He said it was the name on the guardianship transfer, twenty-five years ago. He spent twenty-five years believing it was a shell name, nothing more than the way most of the transaction's documentary evidence is designed to be hidden. But he confirmed it personally, is the name of the man who signed the paperwork, buying his silence."The weight settled heavily over the apartment, Lena's hand clenching around mine as she finally realized what he meant, the facts finally clicking into place in my skull."That's him," she said soft

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 89: THE FOURTH PROPERTY

    LENACole and I picked the number four house on our list. It was a stretch of wooded land, twenty minutes or so outside of town. The house itself was not much to behold, even from the narrow dirt road.We parked well back as Astra had instructed us all to and trekked our way through the tree line with care, quietness, gold light seeping through leaves that had not lost all of their chlorophyll. Cole moved ahead of me, taking in everything with sharper, more trained eyes than had been the norm for him before these past few months had happened."There," he murmured, tapping towards the space between the trees that allowed us to glimpse the house with relative ease.It was large, and yet nothing special, nothing to draw too much attention from passersby. Well maintained, but not ostentatious. There were no cars either in the visible driveway. It appeared to be inhabited, but with no real signs of it at the present.We took up our positions after that, patience being the primary virtue as

  • The Captain's Forbidden Mate   CHAPTER 88: NARROWING THE RADIUS

    COLENoah had pasted an entire wall of the library corner with printouts by the time we arrived and marked out a crude map of the territory around Northcrest, circling places in careful succession, radiating out from the faculty parking lot where Lena had seen him before"Assuming he was willing to drive no more than thirty minutes for a casual stop," Noah said, not looking away from the laptop on his lap, "that gives us a search radius that's still big, but considerably smaller than an entire region.""How do we narrow it?" Lena asked, studying the map."Property records. Older, wealthy, private places, the ones the discreet hide in. I'm comparing it against ownership structures that have reason to be intentionally obscured, shell companies, trusts, anything that implies someone has considerably more interest in keeping a normal property search from finding their address."Astra followed along the marked-out sections with her fingers. "That's clever. Most people don't bother hiding p

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status