Page 80 of Burned

Her eyes flicker with pain. “Because I’ve been a pawn in men’s games far too long.”

I see her for a moment. A survivor. As all us women are.

“What does Carlos want?” Rafe asks from his spot on “Right now?” She stares right at me. “He wants, Erin.”

“So, you’ve said,” I say even though my spine is turning into an icicle. “Does he want me dead or alive?”

“Alive,” she says, “But I’m not sure what he’s planning to do with you. Other than I know he wants you to get to Lucian.”

Kidnapping? Blackmail? Torture?

“He sent me to give you the information you need to receive messages from him, which I gave to Rafe this morning. Along with any addresses and places I remembered.”

“Messages of?” Lucian asks.

“One of them Caleb pre-recorded a long time ago. Something Carlos found after Caleb was killed.” She gives Lucian a pointed look.

Rafe redirects the conversation. “Tell us about Marina.”

Isobel says. “Older than Carlos. Smarter. One of those employees you all call ‘Bachman friendlies,’ a trusted part of the family, but not one of you. She was in the inner circle of the outer circle. As close as a non-Bachman could get. Always on the edge of important rooms. She handled messages between old Bachman contacts. She knew codes, schedules, access points.”

“The gates,” Lucian says. “She’s the one who helped whoever it was that planted the explosives past security and inside The Village. Isn’t she?”

Isobel’s gaze flicks to him.

“Yes.”

Blaze grew up with New York in his blood and Bachman Village in his bones. His voice comes from the doorway, stripped of all humor. “You’re saying Marina is the one who opened Bachman Village?”

“I’m saying Marina knows who did. And she helped them.” Then, she says, “It was a member of Carlos’s new crime ring he established after the fire.”

“Why,” Blaze hisses. “Why would she do that?”

She shrugs. “That I don’t know.”

“Give us names. This talking in circles is getting old,” Lucian snaps.

Isobel looks at him, and for the first time, her composure slips fully. “So is being blamed for surviving.” She stares at him. Hard. “You have no idea what I went through. What Carlos put me through to get to you. What I had to do to get here alive.”

Lucian’s face goes hard. The room holds its breath. Finally, he asks, “Where is Marina, now?”

Blaze paces the floor. “I want to kill the men who took our Village from us. Slow and painful and alive as long as possible so I can enjoy it.”

“Stop it, Blaze,” I say. I ask Isobel, “Is she with Carlos?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes.”

“Helpful,” I mutter.

Isobel’s gaze moves to me. “We’ll know more when Carlos contacts you.”

“And you think there will be a message from Caleb?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes. I do.”

I think of Cass in that kitchen. Blood through her shirt. Laughing about flesh wounds because pain was easier to joke about than fear. I think of Ryan walking into school with his Spider-Man backpack like bravery was a thing he could wear.

I think of Caleb’s hands on me.