Page 46 of His Forever

“What kind of questions?” she asked, and I could hear the nervousness creeping into her voice again.

I didn’t give her time to dwell on it. I quickly typed out the next question. “Who have you been working with? I tried to find out, but nothing came back.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. I glanced up at Sig, whose eyes were narrowed in concentration. Leo was watching me intently, waiting for her response. This was it—the moment we’d see if she was stupid enough to reveal everything.

“I’ve been working with a couple of people,” Candace finally replied, her voice shaky. “But no one important. Just… some connections I made over the years.”

I typed fast. “No names?”

Candace hesitated again, and I could feel her weighing her options. She didn’t know that she was being set up, that every word she said was being recorded, documented, and used against her.

“I don’t think I should say over the phone,” she finally muttered. “Not until I know you’re serious about this.”

I smiled to myself, my fingers moving swiftly over the keys. “I am serious, Candace. But if you want to work with me, you’ll have to give me something. You know how this works. I only make my offers once.”

Candace let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. He’s a politician from Texas, Boone Drake. He’s been helping me out with some of the logistics, and in turn, I’ve been helping him take down some motorcycle club. Iron Fiends or some bullshit like that.”

I raised an eyebrow. Boone Drake? That was new information, but it didn’t matter. Candace had just made the biggest mistake of her life, and she didn’t even realize it. “Anyone else?” I asked through Guy’s voice.

“He’s got a partner he works with, but I’ve never talked to him. I don’t even know his name.”

I glanced at Sig. He gave a curt nod, and I knew right then that he would figure out who her mysterious partner was, no problem. Candace was practically handing us everything on a silver platter, and she didn’t even know it.

“Then I’ve got two new guys working for me,” she continued, her voice steady, cocky even. “They really don’t know jack shit, but that’s good because they do whatever I ask. Johns and Tylers.”

“Small operation,” Guy’s voice responded smoothly with the perfect amount of interest and detachment to keep her talking.

“The less the better in my eyes,” Candace added.

She wasn’t wrong. I’d learned that lesson the hard way just like Leo and Guy had. There was a reason I only had four people I trusted with my life. Too many moving parts made things complicated, and complications got people killed.

“Smart,” I typed, keeping Guy’s tone as indifferent as possible. We couldn’t let her feel any hesitation or doubt.

“So, we have a deal?” Candace’s voice rang through the speaker, eager now like she could almost taste her victory.

The deal she was talking about involved taking down Leo, Apollo, Creed, Murphy, and Princeton, and she thought she’d waltz right into our lives and destroy everything. But we needed her to think that, to keep talking.

I typed quickly, “Take out all of the Banachis, and yes, we have a deal. My operation is small, too, but I have a spot I need filled.”

Candace didn’t miss a beat. “Girlfriends and family, too?”

I froze for a split second, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. I glanced up at Leo. His jaw was tight, rage simmering just below the surface. It was taking everything in him to sit still, to listen to Candace plot the murder of everyone he loved, without reacting. But we had to play the long game. I couldn’t let my own emotions interfere, even though I wanted nothing more than to put an end to this now.

I typed, my fingers moving swiftly. “All of them.”

“Done,” she replied, almost too eagerly.

My heart raced. I could feel the tension in the room spike, thickening the air with the weight of what we were doing. The whole thing felt like a sick game, like we were manipulating pieces on a chessboard, and I just wanted to knock the whole damn thing over. But we were too close to getting what we needed.

I typed the final response, the words echoing in my head as I hit send. “That’s all I needed to hear. We’ll be in touch when it’s done.”

Sig ended the call with a quiet click.

The silence that followed was suffocating. I sat back in Leo’s chair, trying to calm the adrenaline still pumping through my veins. My hands were shaking, but I didn’t let it show. I couldn’t. We had to stay calm and focused, no matter how badly we wanted to scream, to act.

Leo stood slowly from the couch; his fists clenched at his sides. “She just signed her own death warrant,” he said, his voice low and filled with barely contained fury.

I nodded, feeling the weight of what had just happened settle deep in my chest. “She doesn’t even know it yet.”

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