Page 113 of Fractured Allegiance

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I raise an eyebrow. “Since when are you curious?”

“Since I saw your hands shaking the last time he looked at you.”

I blink once. Just once. Not slow.

Drazen leans forward, elbows on his knees, fingers steepled.

“Tell me, Lydia,” he says, voice too smooth. “Is he just good at pretending? Or are you getting worse at it?”

I don’t look away.

“Maybe we both are.”

A pause.

Then he smiles again. This one wider.

Like it’s a win. Like he’s finally got the angle he needed.

He stands slowly, moving toward me like he’s approaching something feral. When he stops, we’re too close. I can smell thewhiskey in his breath, feel the heat of his body in the narrow space between us.

He lifts his hand.

Touches my jaw.

Not hard. Not soft. Just... there. A placeholder for control.

“You’ve always been valuable,” he says. “But value fades fast when it starts getting shared.”

I keep my mouth shut.

Let him stare.

Let him think I’m still calculating which leash I prefer.

He leans in.

Not to kiss me.

To say something meant to cut.

“You think I forgot what’s in that file?”

My stomach tightens. Not from surprise.

From memory.

The file. The one he waved in my face when I first tried to leave. Photos. Statements. Names I never touched but somehow got pinned to. All of it clean enough to stick. All of it fake enough to feel like a joke God forgot to laugh at.

His voice drops one note lower.

“I didn’t erase you, Lydia. I just buried you deep enough to keep you breathing.”

I speak without blinking.

“Then you should remember who taught me how to dig.”

His smile stays.

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