Page 104 of Fractured Allegiance
“Maybe, or maybe they were counting on it.”
There’s a flash of something behind her eyes. Not shock… Something darker. Something that knows exactly what it feels like to be turned into leverage.
She steps forward.
Crosses the distance in four short strides and stops with the glass still in her hands.
“You recognized the handwriting?”
“No.”
“But you have theories.”
I don’t answer that.
Because theories mean suspicion.
And suspicion means admitting I’ve already started keeping secrets from people who know how to bleed the truth out of your skin with silence.
She doesn’t push.
Not yet.
She just studies my face like she’s reading the aftermath of a disaster no one else noticed.
I take a breath. Just one. It doesn't settle anything.
Then I drop the envelope on the table between us.
She doesn’t throw it away. Doesn’t crumple it. It just lays down with purpose, the way you'd set a knife on the table between two people and wait to see who reaches for it first.
I stare at it for a second longer. Then at her.
She doesn’t look at me. But I can tell from the way her spine shifts that she knows I’m watching.
Then she steps closer. Close enough I can smell the echo of her fragrance. Her eyes don’t move off my face.
“You’ve been watching me longer than I thought, haven’t you?”
I look straight at her. “I haven’t stopped.”
She exhales. No sound. Just the shift of her shoulders.
Then she nods. Once.
She lets the pause stretch long.
“I’m not afraid of being watched,” she adds. “I’m afraid of not knowing why.”
That does it.
I step in.
Half a foot.
Just enough to make the room feel smaller.
“To keep you alive,” I say.
