Chapter 230 230

Chapter 230 230
Nova's POV

The back room smelled like damp wood and old sweat. The man zip-tied to the chair in the center of it was young, maybe late twenties, with the kind of face that came from a long string of poor life choices. He looked up when we walked in and his eyes moved straight from me to Caden and stayed there.
At least he had that much sense.
Jake took up position near the door. I stayed to one side and let Caden have the room. This was his territory in more ways than one and I wasn't about to crowd it.
He pulled the spare chair from the corner, turned it around, and sat facing the man with a quality of stillness that I'd always found genuinely unsettling when he chose to use it. He didn't say anything. Just looked.
The driver's jaw worked. "Look, I already told your guy everything."
"Tell me," Caden said.
The man shifted against the zip ties and thought better of it. "Got a call from a burner number. Voice was distorted, couldn't tell you if it was male or female. They gave me the target vehicle, the route, the timing. Said fifty grand would hit a drop account when the job was done."
"And you didn't ask who was paying."
"I don't ask questions. That's the point of the arrangement."
Caden looked at him the way you might look at something mildly disappointing. “I see. You just do as you're told."
The driver's eyes cut sideways briefly. "Look man, I figured it was personal. You know, a jealous ex-husband wanting revenge type of situation. It's none of my business"
"Interesting theory," Caden said, and something in his tone made the man go very still. “And how did you know she'd be on the road around that time? Was it your client that told you?"
The driver looked like he was doing a very rapid reassessment of his evening. "Uh…yeah. They told me what time I needed to be on the road and the description of the car."
Caden and I exchanged looks, the same question burning in our eyes.
"The burner," I said, "tell us about the process. How did they know to contact you?"
His answer was basically as I expected. Their underground network was mostly informal, by word of mouth and recommendations. The driver, Matt, had been contacted through a third party and given the phone once he confirmed he could take the job.
"They told me to get rid of the phone the moment that last call ended, that's standard procedure for these things."
"And did you get rid of it?"
He paused, just a fraction too long and hope leaped in my chest.
Caden tilted his head slightly, a smirk playing on his lips."You didn't get rid of it, did you?”
"I meant to." The composure cracked around the edges. "I just. Listen…I kept it because I always hold onto everything until the payment clears and the dust settles, in case there's a dispute about the work."
I looked briefly at the ceiling, trying to hide my smile at the irony.
He'd kept the phone. The man specifically hired to leave no trail had kept the single most incriminating piece of evidence because he didn't trust his clients to pay up promptly. There was something almost impressive about that level of self-defeating caution.
"Where is it?" Caden asked.
“If I tell you, will you let me go?”
"That depends."
Sweat broke out on Matt’s forehead as he licked his lips, eyes darting around anxiously. "Ummm…depends on what?”
"On whatever she decides.” Caden gestured at me. "You're at her mercy, essentially."
Matt's pleading gaze flicked to me. “Listen ma’am, I'm sorry I hurt you. No hard feelings, I was just doing my job.”
I let the silence stretch while I pretended to consider his offer and he nearly shit his pants.
“If you hand over the phone and we find something useful, I’ll consider letting you off easier. If not…” I shrugged and let the threat hang.
"It's at my place." He rattled off an address which Jake quickly noted. “Loose floorboard in the bedroom, under the bed, left side."
Caden stood, replaced the chair in the corner with the same unhurried precision he'd taken it, and looked at Jake.
Jake already had the address written down and handed it to one of his men without a word passing between them. The man was out the door in seconds.
Caden turned back to the driver, who had watched all of this with the expression of someone calculating exactly how badly they'd underestimated the room.
"You'll stay here," Caden said pleasantly, "until my men get back."
"And then what happens to me?"
Caden considered him with genuine disinterest. "Like my partner said, that entirely depends on what we can get."
He came to stand beside me and I kept my eyes on the driver, who had given up on eye contact entirely and was now studying the floor with great concentration.
"Anything else you want to ask him?" Caden said, low enough that it was just between us.
I looked at the man in the chair. He was a means to an end and he genuinely didn't know who'd hired him. That much I believed. The phone was the actual thread worth pulling.
"No," I said. "Let's wait outside."
We went back out to the main room. Jake pulled the door shut behind us and positioned himself near it without being asked. A lamp on the side table threw a narrow circle of light across the floor. Outside the single window the pack grounds were dark and very still.
I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. "So. Who do we think hired him?"
"Lila is the obvious answer," Caden said.
"She has the motive."
"She does. Whether she has the patience for something this organized is another question." He folded his arms, mirroring me without seeming to notice. "Hiring a rogue, running it through a third party, distorting her voice. That's not a woman acting on impulse. It's planned." He paused. "Lila acts on impulse."
That was fair enough.
"Garrett then," I said.
A flicker of distaste crossed Caden’s face and that reminded me of a question I'd been wanting to ask.
"I noticed you and Emily didn’t look thrilled to have him back," I said. "What's the history there?"