Page 73 of Burned

“You meant something to Lucian. Therefore, you are valuable. Carlos uses women as leverage. To hurt others. To gain power. The ultimate pawn wrapped in silk and lace.”

“I see.” I take a deep breath.

She takes an even deeper one. “He wants to use you to hurt him as he did with me. When I heard about you—that’s when I woke up and got brave enough to plan to leave.”

My skin prickles. Lucian’s hand reaches for mine.

“I knew he would use the opportunity to finish what he started in the fire.”

“To kill Lucian,” I whisper.

“While you make him weak,” she whispers back.

It’s true. He can’t make a single decision without first considering how it will affect me. He was single, with no ties to anyone outside the Brotherhood other than Gregory, whom he kept a world away.

Now, he’s shackled to a child, a woman in a wheelchair, his younger brother, and me.

The woman who makes him weak.

That look in her eyes was sadness for me. She knows I’m Carlos’s next target.

And she wants to save me.

“Continue,” I say. Lucian’s breath changes beside me.

Now, he wants to hear what she has to say.

“Carlos thinks it’s time to strike again,” she says. “And this time, I won’t let him.”

“Would have been nice if you felt this altruistic before the Village got blown up.”

Blaze murmurs. “But thanks for coming before he killed Lucian for a second time.”

“He doesn’t want Lucian.” Ignoring Blaze, her gaze locks on me. “He wants you.

Carlos thinks you’re the easiest way to destroy him,” she says.

Isobel looks at him, and whatever thought or feeling passes between them doesn’t belong to me. I see it. I feel it. It makes a cold, creeping prickle crawl its way up the back of my neck.

Does she only want to save me to gain his favor?

It’s a gutting feeling.

I have to trust him, regardless of what she does. I squeeze his hand.

He squeezes back. It’s enough. I sense everyone in the room is waiting for me to speak. After all, she’s just told us I’m the reason she’s here.

“And what does that make you?” I ask.

She flits back and forth from genuine to biting from her pain. And now she snaps at me, “What about me?”

“What do you think?” I ask. “How can we trust you?”

She leans back. “I think Carlos underestimates women like you. Like me.”

“What do you know about the Bachman Village explosion? What about Carlos’s plans for his next attack?” Blaze leans forward. “Tell us something worth knowing for God’s sake.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” she says. “But I’ll only talk to her.”