Chapter 31 – The Spy I Never Wanted to Be

Chapter 31 – The Spy I Never Wanted to Be
RORY

Kai didn’t sit. He stayed by the door, arms folded, like he didn’t trust himself to be too close to me. Or maybe he didn’t trust me.

“You’ve been in enough rooms lately,” he said. “You’ve heard enough whispers. You’re going to start listening more carefully.”

“I already do,” I said. “It’s what you trained me for, remember?”

“This is different.” His eyes were darker than usual. “We’re not talking about posture or polite lies. We’re talking about betrayal.”

I leaned back in the chair. “So… you want me to be your little mole?”

Kai’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “I want you to use what we’ve given you. If you’re as clever as I think, you’ll find out who’s talking to the wrong people.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You won’t,” he said simply.

I hated that he was right.

Because refusing in this house didn’t mean you got to walk away. It meant something happened to you, or to someone you cared about—though in my case, that list was tragically short.

I didn’t agree out loud. I didn’t have to. He knew.

The rest of the day, I moved through the house differently. Before, I’d watched people like an outsider, trying to learn their games. Now, I was inside one.

The mansion was louder than usual, though it wasn’t in the volume of voices—it was in the way the staff moved, the tightness of their steps, the glances they didn’t think anyone noticed.

At dinner, I caught Enzo studying me while making small talk with one of the guards. When his gaze locked with mine, it was almost a question. I broke eye contact before he could read anything in it.

I wasn’t sure if the brothers trusted each other. Which meant I couldn’t trust any of them either.

That night, I started my own quiet routine. I lingered in doorways, drifted past half-open rooms, pretended to look for books in the library while really just listening. I made mental notes—who met with who, who left rooms too quickly, who carried their phone like it might explode.

But the problem with listening for secrets is you find them.

Three days into my assignment, I overheard two guards in the hallway outside the east wing talking about “the shipment.” I didn’t catch much, just enough to know it was late, and someone wasn’t happy.

Later, in the kitchen, one of the maids quickly hid an envelope when she saw me.

And in the gym, Jace’s phone lit up on the bench beside him while he was sparring with Kai. The name on the screen wasn’t saved as anything suspicious—it was just “Luca”—but his reaction was telling. He glanced at it once, let it buzz, and didn’t pick it up.

I didn’t know who Luca was, but I knew that in their world, ignoring a call could mean more than answering it.

The first real lead came when I passed the back staircase late one night and saw a shadow moving fast toward the cellar door. No one was supposed to go down there except for storage runs, and those were always during the day.

The shadow disappeared before I could follow, but the air felt different, charged.

And that was when I realized something uncomfortable—whoever the traitor was, they were confident enough to operate right under the brothers’ noses.

Which meant they were either stupid… or very good.

By the end of the week, I had too many scraps of nothing and not enough to give Kai without looking useless. And useless was dangerous.

The pressure was eating at me. I caught myself wondering what I looked like from the outside now—another piece in their machine, or something else entirely?

I didn’t get to wonder long.

On the eighth night, Kai cornered me in the library again. No preamble. “What have you got?”

“Nothing solid,” I said. “Just hints.”

“Hints don’t keep us alive, Rory.”

The use of my name felt sharp, like a warning.

I hesitated, then told him about the cellar shadow, the guards’ conversation, and Jace’s ignored call.

His expression didn’t change at the last one, but his stillness did. He was listening harder.

“Don’t follow anyone down there,” he said when I mentioned the cellar.

“Why?”

“Because if you’re wrong, they’ll kill you before you can ask questions.”

Comforting.

After that, the game shifted. I wasn’t just watching; I was watching for my life. I started paying attention to the details the brothers themselves ignored—like how the same guard was always stationed near the west hall exit, or how one of the maids disappeared for exactly seventeen minutes every afternoon.

It was during one of those afternoons that I made my first mistake.

I followed the maid.

She slipped out the side door, heading for the old shed at the edge of the property. I stayed far back, using the trees as cover. She went inside, stayed just long enough to make me curious, and then left carrying nothing.

When she was gone, I went in.

It was empty—at least at first glance. But tucked behind a stack of paint cans was a black duffel bag.

I crouched, unzipping it just enough to see inside. Money. Bundles of it. And underneath, something metallic caught the light.

I was about to pull it out when a voice behind me said, “Lose something?”

I froze.

Slowly, I turned.

Jace stood in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame. But there was nothing casual about the way his eyes moved from my face to the bag.

I swallowed. “I was just—”

“Spying?” he supplied, stepping inside.

I forced a smile. “Exploring.”

His gaze held mine for a long, tense second. Then he crouched beside me, tugged the bag open all the way, and looked inside.

Whatever he saw, it didn’t surprise him.

“Come on,” he said, zipping it back up. “Before someone thinks you’re stealing from us.”

Us. The word sat heavy.

I followed him out, my pulse loud in my ears.

Back at the mansion, he didn’t take me to my room. He took me to the study, where Nikolai was waiting.

“She found this,” Jace said, dropping the duffel on the desk.

Nikolai’s gaze shifted to me. “And?”

I opened my mouth, but Jace spoke first. “She didn’t touch anything. Just got curious.”

It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth either.

Nikolai studied me for a beat longer, then nodded. “Leave it.”

That was it. No lecture. No threat.

But as I left, I heard Jace say quietly to Nikolai, “If she’s the one, we’ll know soon enough.”

That night, lying in bed, I couldn’t stop hearing it.

If she’s the one.

The next morning, the tension in the house was thicker. Everyone moved faster, talked less. At breakfast, Enzo barely looked up from his plate, and Kai’s jaw was tight.

I thought maybe I’d get another few days before Kai demanded answers again. I was wrong.

By midday, I was summoned to the study. Nikolai was there this time, alone.

“You’re going to the cellar,” he said.

I blinked. “You told me not to—”

“I told you not to if you were working alone,” he said. “You’re not. You’re going with me.”

My heart thudded. “Why now?”

“Because the traitor is meeting someone tonight,” he said calmly. “And you’re going to see exactly who it is.”