Page 64 of Sovereign Oaths

“How can he not tell she’s faking it? I’m not even in the room, and I know.”

I closed my eyes while pinching the bridge of my nose. We shouldn’t be watching that intently. A quick glance to confirm her location was all that was needed. Watching her intimate moments with Dias was too much.

Derek was there. Alessio gave him a guest room when Em refused to send him away. His presence was the one thing keeping us all from running over and ripping her out of that house.

If we were losing it watching the feeds, I had no idea how my brother was surviving being down the hall.

“Fucking stop,” Javi snapped.

“I can’t,” Cruz yelled. “It’s haunting me.”

“It’s her job. She’s doing what she needs to. That’s it.” As if I needed to remind him of that. “We all know if she had a choice, she would be here with us.”

“Do we?” Cruz challenged. “Because I’m pretty damn sure she didn’t have to fuck him twice last night.”

“Shut up!” Javi stood and faced off with our brother. “She doesn’t owe us or anyone anything. Not an explanation. Not an apology. She’s not your girlfriend. She doesn’t belong to us.”

“I’m well aware,” Cruz grumbled.

But Javi was fired up. “Just be grateful she’s willing to go this far. She’s giving us the time and space we need to put things in place without alerting Dias to anything. She’s sacrificing so much more than any of us could imagine and hasn’t complained once.”

Cruz cowered. “I would never say anything to her.”

“Don’t even think it!” He didn’t back off. “We asked for more time, so she’s risking her life in that house doing whatever she has to keep Dias occupied. You don’t get to say a single word, let alone have a thought, that doesn’t respect that. The absolute last thing she needs when she can finally leave and come back home is for any of us to do anything but support her. We thank her for her amazing work. We tell her how much we appreciate her. We update her on the rest of the case. We fulfill our responsibilities so her sacrifices don’t go to waste. That’s it.”

Cruz stared up at him, mouth slightly ajar, before finally nodding. “Got it.”

Javi eyed him before turning and sitting back down.

I smirked but stayed quiet for a few minutes to let them calm down. “With the new information she gave us, we’re almost done.”

“And?” Cruz asked.

“Exactly.” I sighed, glancing between them. “Then what?”

“We go home.” Javi shrugged.

“Without her?” Cruz crossed his arms.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. We’re staying together.”

“How?” Cruz asked.

I opened my mouth, then shut it.

“She might be willing to leave.” Javi stared at the ground. “She hates what the Pack turned her into, but it was her only way to survive.”

We all did. None of us wanted to be killers, but we weren’t in control. “We owe our lives to the Velez,” I started. “Everything we have––everything we are––is because of them.”

“We can leave. Take her with us,” Cruz offered.

Javi frowned. “We can’t. Not without getting ourselves, and her, killed.”

His words felt like a sucker punch, but he wasn’t exaggerating. We had no way out. The Pack was too powerful. Too expansive. We were tiny pawns in their world, and they wouldn’t hesitate to take us out, even Em, if we betrayed them.

“There must be an answer. Maybe she can get permission to move in with us. at least then she’d be off Pack land,” Cruz suggested.

I slumped. “We’ll always be their soldiers. We can ask but, in the end, it’s up to them.”

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