Page 159 of The Obedient Lie
They said nothing.
But they didn’t need to.
I checked my lipstick. “You can track me. Relax.”
“Your phone will be blocked,” Bastion said, tone low, sharp. “You know that.”
“I gave you both the tracker from my family ring.”
Silence.
I turned and met their stares.
“You didwhat?” Luca’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“I linked you in this morning.”
I lifted my hand and twisted the antique ring on my finger.
“Same protocol my family uses.”
Bastion looked like I’d just pulled a weapon from my purse and offered it to him.
“That tracker’s encrypted,” Luca muttered.
“Exactly,” I said, brushing my hair behind my shoulder.
“No one else can get in.”
“You don’t give that kind of access toanyone,” Bastion said.
“You’re notanyone,” I replied, holding his gaze.
“You’re my?—”
I stopped myself.
Dynasty daughters didn’tconfess.
Not with words.
Instead, I reached for my perfume but the tension in the room didn’t ease.
Itsharpened.
“You’ll text if anything changes,” Luca said. “No disappearing. No going off-grid. And no drugs.”
My hand froze.
“I wasn’t?—”
“No drugs, Emilia,” Bastion echoed, firmer this time.
“Not at their table. Someone hands you anything you don’t take it. Not even to cope.”
He didn’t need to say more.
I heard what he wasreallysaying:
