Page 35 of Burned
Rafe waits until he is sure I am listening before continuing.
“Second point. Carlos’s men were spotted in the same area less than twenty minutes after she left.”
“She wanted to be seen,” Bayne says.
Blaze swears. “Did he want to be seen as well?”
“We don’t know,” Rafe says.
“Different messages,” Gregory says quietly, the words careful rather than confident.
Every head turns toward him.
He adjusts his glasses, then seems to realize he has spoken in a room full of murderers and one furious billionaire with control issues. To his credit, he does not shrink.
“I only mean,” Gregory continues, “if Carlos wanted to prove she was alive, the sighting could have been cleaner. A direct image. A message. Something unmistakable. A grainy clip from a brokencamera, then his men spotted in the same area right afterward? This is almost designed to make you argue with yourselves.”
I study him. “What do you mean?”
Gregory leans forward. “Carlos wants Lucian distracted.”
I look at Erin.
She is not looking at me now. She is looking at the screen, studying the blurred woman as if she were a problem she could solve if she stared hard enough.
“Not just distracted,” Erin whispers. “It’s emotional warfare.”
Blaze glances at me. “She’s not wrong.”
“I am aware,” I say.
Erin’s eyes flick to mine.
Recognition.
She knows exactly what emotional compromise looks like because she has been used as a lever against me before. She knows Carlos has chosen his weapon well.
I am the first one to look away.
“Wait,” Erin says. “What was the third point of torment?”
“Confirmation,” Gregory quickly corrects her.
My neck tenses, and I run a hand over the back of it.
Rafe taps a key. Another image appears.
This one is worse.
A close-up pulled from a different angle. Still poor quality. Still imperfect. The figure of a woman walking down an alleyway between metal warehouses.
This time, we can’t see her face.
She turns the corner.
And I see the street sign.
My eyes flicker to the bottom-right corner of the screen.
