Page 18 of Fractured Allegiance
It’s not freedom.
It’s permission to disappear.
Which means whatever he’s planning… It's bigger than just a background check.
“Lydia,” he adds, tone colder now, “I’ll need you at the club again tonight. And don’t you mistake latitude for trust. You’re still mine.”
“I will never forget.”
“Good. Because if you fuck this up—”
He doesn’t finish the sentence.
He doesn’t have to.
He ends the call.
I sit there, in the driver’s seat, the phone dead in my lap.
Outside, the wind shifts. A piece of paper lifts from the sidewalk and dances against a trash can before catching on the wheel of a parked bike.
The moment feels heavy.
I haven’t disobeyed Drazen since I traded freedom for leverage.
But something in me wants to.
And it’s not because I want to protect Silas.
I don’t.
It’s just that a part of me wants to understand him.
And that’s worse.
Curiosity is a soft word. A luxury.
In this world, it’s a weapon you point at yourself.
I tap the screen and pull up Silas’s file again. Just his name. Just his address.
Then I close it.
It’s not like I’m done looking.
Just that I’ve already memorized it.
Chapter 2 – Silas - The Man Behind the Curtain
The door clicks shut behind her, but I can still feel where she stood. Like her presence didn’t leave with her.
Lydia Carr.
She said her name was Lydia Carr.
I didn’t react when she said it, but it’s been replaying in my head ever since. The shape of it, the ease… the shape of her, the calculation in the way she paused just long enough for me to notice but not long enough to give anything away.
Her scent stayed in the room, subtle but insistent, like memory refusing to fade.
