Page 22 of Zachary

“It’s just…” I try to get my thoughts together enough to explain, but everything is all tangled up in the guilt I still feel. “It’s his privacy that’s been invaded. I mean, Grandmother listening in on me reading a magazine, or even on shit I say… I don’t like it, but I can tell her that to her face and not cause a diplomatic incident. Plus, my whole life, I’ve always known that she knows everything.”

It’s an attempt at a joke, but it falls flat now. Eavesdropping devices are a relatively new invention, but she’s always liked technological gadgets. For all we know, she’s been using them since they were first invented.

“I just feel like he has the right to know she was listening. And that the whole family knows what I said to him. He… I think I hurt him, Garrett.” It costs me to say that. He already knows I apologized, but I still don’t like admitting that I was… mean. Spiteful.

Garrett’s silent, and I know he’s thinking about the ramifications. Which I didn’t. Shit.

“Would it affect the agreement?” I ask. “The listening devices being there?”

He grimaces. “If we left them there without informing the village council, CSG, and the DEA, yes. They’ve each allocated a security liaison to work with me, and those people have full access to any security plans we have in place. Me having secret surveillance would violate that agreement. My options when I found out it already existed were to remove it or tell them about it and give them all access.”

Um… “Isn’t removing it without telling them it was there a violation of the agreement anyway?”

He looks me dead in the eye. “Yes. But if I tell them what Damaris did…”

I get it now. Garrett’s protecting her. The combined governments wouldn’t look kindly on her little spy network.Given her influence and the work she’s done for the community over the years, she’d barely get a slap on the wrist, but the humiliation of even that much…

“Dammit,” I mutter.

“Yeah.”

Nearly two centuries of always,alwaysputting family first, always remaining loyal weigh on me now. My whole life has been about protecting the family and our people. About the responsibility we have to those in our compound—the village, now—who aren’t as strong, don’t have as much wealth. The Bailey family’s standing in the community of species—Grandmother’sstanding—has been a stalwart barrier shielding us all. For it to come out that she violated the terms of an inter-government agreement—even if the news was restricted only to those with the highest security clearance—well… that would be a blow.

But on the other hand, I can’t shake the feeling that I need to tell Ronan about this. That he deserves to know.

This has to be the worst Monday morning ever.

Swallowing hard, I tell Garrett, “Could you put some kind of preliminary report together? Maybe a message saying there’s been a minor security hiccup, it’s been handled, and a full report is coming later? Something you can send with thirty seconds’ notice just so it’s on record that you did report it.”

He lets out a slow, shaky sigh. “You’re going to tell him.”

“I have to. Maybe if I explain, he won’t report it. But…” I clench my hands into fists, trying to work out what’s going on in my head. “He’s trying so hard, Garrett. I know I haven’t been good to him, but while he’s here, he’s ours to protect, and this feels like a betrayal. I told him we’d start over. We called a truce. I can’t look him in the eye knowing…” I shake my head.

“No, I get it. I’ll type up a text message, leave it in drafts. If it seems like he’s going to report it, give me a heads-up.” He hesitates. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he will.”

“Oh?” Hope surges in me.

“You’re right; heistrying. Yesterday… I don’t know if you heard, but Zoe’s befriended him. She introduced him to half the village, and last night he was dancing at the pub with everyone else.”

“Last night?” I echo. It’s not even eight in the morning. “How do you know this already?”

“Zoe messaged me and Cam last night. She wants the three of us and Ronan to have a movie night on Friday. I think he’s lonely, Zac. I think he’s socially awkward and lonely and probably has other things on his mind, and it’s made things a lot harder for him than they need to be. If we—” He takes a deep breath. “If we show some honesty and trust, maybe he’ll be inclined to reciprocate.”

We both take a second to think about that and hope we’re not making a stupid decision. If Ronan is angry enough to report what Grandmother did—if the dragons are so offended that they make a fuss—it’s not just this project that’s in jeopardy. The relations between governments might become strained as well. Gideon is the current lucifer’s boyfriend and very highly placed at CSG in his own right. How will the DEA react to the knowledge that his grandmother was spying on one of their people?

“You and Asher better get going,” I manage, looking at the clock again. I somehow have to wait another twenty minutes before I can even go to Ronan’s. I’m pretty sure it’s going to feel like hours.

“Let me know as soon as you’ve spoken with him” is all Garrett says in parting.

I sink back in my chair and wait.

The teleport roomin Ronan’s house is just like all the other teleport rooms Micah designed—small and functional. There is absolutely no excuse to stay in here a second longer.

And yet, it takes me an interminably long time to reach the door. My legs suddenly feel like they weigh a ton.

For fuck’s sake, Zac, get over it. He’ll either take it well or won’t. And if he doesn’t, you can go back to being an ass to him.

My inner self gives a heck of a pep talk, but it’s wrong. If Ronan doesn’t take this well, I’m not going to revert to my old behavior. He’s entitled to get upset about being spied on.

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