Chapter 66 BETRAYAL
Everywhere was so still that Lea could hear every breath she took, every heartbeat, every tiny vibration in the machines lining the walls.
George’s brother moved with quiet precision, crossing the room to a console glowing with pale blue lights. He didn’t look at them as he spoke.
“Sit.”
Lea hesitated, but George guided her gently to a metal chair positioned near a long steel table. He didn’t sit. He stood behind her, one palm resting lightly on the back of her chair, a subtle but unmistakable claim. A shield.
George’s brother glanced over his shoulder, noting the gesture, and let out the faintest huff of amusement.
“You always were predictable,” he murmured.
Lea stiffened. “And you are…?”
He turned fully toward her then, arms casually folded. “Cassian.”
The name carried weight. A shadow. A threat wrapped in elegance.
Lea swallowed. “Cassian Winters.”
His smile widened. “So he did tell you something.”
Not enough, Lea thought. Not nearly enough.
Cassian approached the table with slow, deliberate steps. His gaze, sharp and unsettlingly calm, settled on Lea.
“You’re looking for answers,” he said. “To the dossier. To why Corin wants you dead. To why George dragged you back into a world he swore he’d keep you out of.”
He lifted a brow.
“Shall I tell her, brother? Or will you continue pretending she doesn’t deserve the truth?”
George’s jaw locked. “Cassian…”
“No.” Lea stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the concrete floor. “This time I want to hear it. All of it.”
George froze, eyes hard. But Cassian merely motioned for her to continue.
“Very well,” he said smoothly. “Let’s start with the simplest part: the dossier you found in your apartment was never meant to stay with you.”
Lea stared. “I didn’t even know I had it until men started breaking down my door. How could it ‘stay’ with me if I didn’t know it existed?”
Cassian’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Exactly.”
A chill crawled through her.
“George,” she whispered, “what is he talking about?”
George stepped around her and placed both hands on the table, leaning forward slightly. His shoulders were tight beneath his shirt, every muscle coiled with tension.
“It wasn’t supposed to go to you, Lea,” he said quietly. “It was supposed to go to me.”
Her breath stopped.
“The courier,” George continued, voice low. “He was supposed to deliver it directly into my hands. Instead, he panicked when he saw Corin’s men trailing him. He slipped into your apartment building… and hid it in your mail slot.”
The world felt suddenly too still.
“He thought,” George said, “that you were a safe address. Random. Unconnected. He thought he’d come back for it.”
“But he didn’t,” Lea said hollowly.
“No,” Cassian answered for him. “Because Corin’s men found him first.”
Her stomach lurched.
Her normal life, the apartment she’d lived in for three years, the job she went to every day, the groceries she bought, the evenings she spent alone, none of it had been chosen. It had been collateral damage. An accident.
Her entire world had turned upside down because a courier panicked.
Because he used her as a hiding place.
Because she had been unlucky enough to be in the wrong building at the wrong time.
“Then why,” she whispered, voice trembling, “did Corin think the dossier was mine?”
Cassian tapped a knuckle against the table. “Because the courier’s body was found with your address written in his pocket. And Corin assumes the worst.”
Lea rubbed her hands against her jeans, trying to ground herself. Her palms were slick.
“And the dossier itself,” she said slowly, “what’s in it? What could possibly be worth all this?”
George and Cassian exchanged a look.
A look Lea didn’t understand.
A look that made her feel cold all over.
Finally, George spoke.
“It’s a ledger,” he said. “A record of every transaction Corin has made for the past seven years. Money laundering. Human trafficking routes. Weapons shipments. Deals with foreign black-market brokers.”
He paused.
“And the names of the officials he’s paid to look the other way.”
Lea’s breath caught.
Cassian nodded. “Corin has a network of influence that reaches deep into the justice system. One leak, one credible leak, and everything collapses.”
“And he thinks I’m the leak,” Lea said weakly.
Cassian’s eyes softened. “And that, Lea… is why he wants to erase you.”
She felt George step closer, felt his warmth behind her like a shield against something cold and merciless.
Cassian paced toward the screens, tapping in a series of commands. Images filled the monitors, blurred maps, satellite photos, rows of names redacted in black.
Lea stared at the web of corruption illuminated across the wall. Her pulse hammered in her ears.
It was worse than she imagined.
And she was at the center of it by accident.
George moved to her side and placed a hand on her lower back, grounding her. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself lean into the touch.
“Is the dossier still with Corin?” she asked.
“No,” Cassian replied. “It’s missing. That’s the real reason he’s desperate.”
Lea frowned. “Missing? But I never saw it. I never touched it.”
Cassian’s gaze sharpened. “But someone in your apartment did.”
Her eyes flew open. “What?”
“Your door,” George said quietly. “The latch was broken when I got there. I didn’t think, there wasn’t time, but Cassian later confirmed it.”
Cassian nodded. “Someone entered your apartment before Corin’s men did.”
Lea’s mind raced. “Who? Why?”
“That,” Cassian murmured, “is the question.”
He pressed a button, and a new image filled the main screen, grainy security footage of her apartment hallway. A blurred silhouette stood in her doorway at 3:17 a.m., their face obscured by shadows, body angle unmistakably deliberate.
Lea’s breath stalled.
The figure turned slightly, not enough to see the face, but enough to show the shape of the shoulders, the length of the stride as they disappeared back down the hallway.
Her skin prickled.
“That person,” Cassian said, “took the dossier from your apartment.”
George stepped forward, tension radiating off him. “Play the rest.”
Cassian shook his head. “That is the rest. The cameras cut out thirty seconds later. Someone tampered with the feed.”
Lea stared at the frozen image.
Someone she knew?
Someone she didn’t?
Someone who had used her without her knowledge?
The room felt smaller suddenly, the air too heavy.
She whispered, “Who would steal it… and leave me to take the fall?”
Cassian leaned back against the console. “We don’t know yet. But whoever it is, they’re good. Too good.”
George’s voice was low, dark, dangerous. “Corin thinks I took it. That’s why he’s escalating.”
“He’ll keep coming,” Cassian agreed. “And he’ll burn down every safe house you have.”
“But not yours,” George said.
Cassian’s eyes gleamed. “No. He won’t touch mine.”
Lea swallowed. “Why not?”
George answered instead.
“Because Cassian is the only person who knows where Corin’s real accounts are hidden.”
Cassian smiled thinly. “Corin may be a monster, Lea. But even monsters don’t bite the hand that controls their money.”
A long, heavy silence settled over them.
Finally, Cassian pushed off the console, straightening.
“You can stay here tonight,” he said. “But only tonight. By morning, Corin’s reach will extend even here.”
Lea looked between the two brothers, the dangerous one, and the more dangerous one.
“If we can’t stay,” she asked softly, “what do we do?”
Cassian tilted his head slightly.
“You run.”
George stepped closer, his voice steady and absolute.
“No,” he said. “We don’t run. Not anymore.”
He looked at Lea, and the weight in his eyes made her chest tighten.
“We fight back.”
Cassian’s slow smile returned. “Then you’ll need help.”
Lea’s breath caught. “Yours?”
Cassian blinked once.
“No,” he said. “Someone far more unpredictable.”
He walked to a drawer, pulled out a small encrypted phone, and placed it on the table.
“Brace yourselves,” he murmured. “Because the only man who hates Corin more than you do…”
He tapped in a number.
“…is Billy Ernest.”
Lea’s heart stopped.
George’s blood ran cold.
Cassian waited for the line to connect.