Chapter 50 Attention
Caden POV
After Ivy went to bed I called Lucas. He answered on the second ring.
"Maya," I said.
"What about her?" he said.
"Ivy noticed something today," I said. "Maya looked at the blue box for too long."
I kept my voice even.
“Ivy said it felt like she recognized it." A pause. "What do you have on her?"
"Same as before," Lucas said. "NYU student. Sociology. Genuine connection with Ivy." A pause. "Nothing obvious."
"Look deeper," I said. "Full background. Tonight."
A pause.
"You think there's something there," he said.
"Ivy's instincts are good," I said. "Better than she knows. When something feels off to her, I pay attention."
"Yes," he said.
I ended the call. Sat in the dark. Thought about Maya on Ivy's couch. The warmth she brought with her. The way she made Ivy laugh. I had heard it earlier that week two doors down. It stopped me in the middle of a call with Remus.
Ivy laughing. She really laughed. Maya did that. So the warmth was real. Which made everything harder.
Saturday I woke at five. Made coffee. Worked through the overnight reports.
I read Remus's report twice. I had started doing that every morning now. Not because anything looked wrong. Because everything looked fine with Reid too.
I read it again. Found nothing I could point to. I set it down. Lucas knocked at seven.
He came in and sat down.
"Maya Chen," he said.
"Tell me," I said.
"Enrolled at NYU fourteen months ago," he said. "Transfer from a school in Chicago. The school exists. The records exist. The professors she listed exist."
He paused.
"I called the records office directly.
He looked at me.
"The person I spoke to had no memory of her."
"Could be a records problem," I said.
"Yes," he said. "Could be."
He set a paper on the desk.
"Her apartment lease. The guarantor is a holding company."
I looked at the paper. Three layers of ownership. I followed the chain down.
Then I stopped. Same structure as the Voss linked companies from the Reid investigation. Not identical. But close enough.
"Not confirmed," Lucas said. "Could be a coincidence. But with what Ivy noticed…"
"It's enough to keep watching," I said.
"Yes," he said.
I looked at the paper. I thought about their laughter. Both things could be true at the same time. The warmth was real and something else could still be underneath it.
"Don't approach her," I said. "Don't change anything around her. If she's watching, we don't want her knowing we're watching back."
Lucas nodded.
"Ivy?" he said.
"Not yet," I said. "When we have something real."
He looked at me.
"She won't like waiting," he said.
"I know," I said. "Tell me when you have something real."
He left.
Ivy knocked at nine. She brought two cups from the place down the street. Dark roast. She handed me one without a word. Then leaned against the doorframe.
I looked at her. Morning light came from the hall window behind her. The coffee cup in her hand and those steady eyes on me.
She handed me a cup. Our fingers touched when she passed it over. Brief. Neither of us pulled away fast. Then she stepped back into the hall.
"Breakfast?" she said.
"Yes," I said.
She turned toward her apartment. I stayed in the doorway for a second. Then I looked at my hand. Still warm. I got ready and we went to the farmers market.
His idea. She had mentioned it once on a phone call weeks ago and I kept it in mind.
Lucas came with us. The three of us moved through the stalls. Ivy beside me. Lucas a few steps back.
Paul saw her straight away. He handed her a sample before she reached the stall.
"Rye today," he said. "New batch."
She tried it.
"Good," she said.
Paul looked at me. Held out a piece.
I tried it.
"Good," I said.
Paul looked pleased. Ivy looked at me. I noticed her watching.
"What?" I said.
"Nothing," she said.
She bought two loaves. Dolores had something new. She made Ivy try it before telling her what it was. Ivy tried it.
"What is it?" she said.
Dolores told her what it was. Ivy bought some anyway. I stood beside her the whole time. As we walked away she said,
"You're very patient for someone who runs the entire wolf world."
I looked at her.
"The wolf world doesn't have good cheese," I said.
She laughed.
Before she could stop herself. A short laugh. I looked at her when it happened. Not for attention. Just looked. She turned away.
She kept walking. Lucas peeled off somewhere along the way and it was just the two of us. We walked down the street by the park. The trees were mostly bare now.
"Tell me about the compound," she said.
I looked at her.
"Oregon," she said. "What's it actually like."
"Quiet," I said. "Dense forest on three sides. The main house handles everything. Operations, meetings, daily work."
I paused.
"The pack lives deeper in the trees. Each family has its own space."
"How many wolves?" she said.
"Around sixty in the compound," I said. "More in the surrounding territory."
"Do they know about me?" she said.
"Some do," I said. "The senior members. The ones who need to know." I pause. "It's not a secret. Just not announced."
"What do they think?" she said.
"Most are waiting to see," I said.
"See what?" she said.
"Who you are," I said. "When they meet you."
"Not if. When.” She kept walking. Didn't say anything for a moment. Then, quietly "When they meet me," she said.
"Yes," I said.
At the corner of Bleecker, she stopped.
I stopped beside her. She was looking across the street. I followed her gaze. A man stood near the dry cleaner. Not doing anything obvious wrong. I felt it before I could name it. The way he held himself.
"You can see him," I said quietly.
Ivy looked at me.
"You felt it," I said.
"Yes," she said.
I looked back at the man.
"Lucas," I said. Low.
Lucas appeared behind us. No one said a thing.
"Walk normally," I said to Ivy. "Keep moving."
We kept moving. The man didn't follow. But he had been watching. I was sure of it.
In the lobby ivy stopped and looked at me.
"You felt him from across the street," I said.
"Yes,"
"Before I said anything."
"Yes."
She was quiet. Something changed in her expression.
"That's not…." She said.
Stopped.
"Not what?" I said.
She shook her head.
"I need to talk to Lucas about the security," I said.
Ivy turned toward the elevator. I followed. But I had caught it. What she had almost said. The hesitation. That “Not normal. Not human”.
I pressed the elevator button and didn't say anything.