needed to say it out loud before it would let her

nt three years reading bodies for the things they didn't say, and his stillness wasn't calm - it was

ook at half a million dollars while the man attached to it stood ten feet away, alive

ich somehow made it worse than if he'd tried to soften it. "Possibly not for a long ti

signed th

understand it before

e vague "his people" the lawyer had used - family, spoken the way some patients

" Emma said. "Not everything. J

e crossed to the chair across from her - not close, precisely measured, th

tay quiet. Governments. Corporations. Families with names you'd recognize, doing business they'd rather the public didn't see. I am, technically, hi

ed hi

s who *do* use the name, who fight each other for it constantly - there would be a fallback. Me. Un

swallowing a crown, and felt something cold se

e, closed slightly. "I don't know who. I don't know how much they know. I know that until three nights ago

need a

at the corner of his mouth, gone as fast as it came. "A married man draws less suspicion than a single on

ing me as

ed that more than she expected to. "I won't pretend it's more than that. I also won't pretend there's no risk to you. If my family - if the peopl

he felt. "I chose to hide you from armed men in a blackout

eady thought was complete. "Most people who make that choice make it because they don't understand what it costs. You

n't pay Jake'

eed quietly.

her, and Emma found herself studying his hands instead of his face - steady, precise, the hands of a man

e first time I've attended a family event in eleven years, and I need a wife on my arm wh

s two

awa

a stranger and meet his f

gaze, and for a moment the calm control cracked just enough to let something more honest through -

u look tired*, guilt wrapped around love the way it always was between them. She thought about the folder,

h about your family before I walk into a room

y right and has spent thirty years making sure everyone agrees with him. My sister Sophia, who smiles at you while deciding exactly how useful you are to her. My other brother Marcus, who comma

ed over, slow and c

since stopped flinching from himself. "That's the family you're marrying into, Ms. Carter. I'd rather you walk in kno

ket - once, sharp, insistent.

di

eneath it, three words that emptied eve

all me

-

f Chap