Page 92 of Breaking Ophelia

The laugh on the other end is dry as bone. “What’s the job?”

Caius glances at me, then back to the road. “Need a perimeter. Couple weeks. Maybe longer.”

“Who’s the threat?” Slade asks.

“Board. Vicious Kings. Anyone from the old crowd.”

Slade whistles. “That’s not a small ask, Cai. You burn the whole place down or just piss him a little?”

Caius shrugs, a tension in his shoulders I’ve never seen before. “Doesn’t matter. Just need it done.”

“Send the address. I’ll handle it,” Slade says. “You want muscle, or just eyes?”

“Both.”

There’s a pause. “You okay?”

Caius looks at me again, and for a second his eyes aren’t dead-black, but soft and uncertain. “Yeah,” he says. “Got what I need.”

Slade hums. “Let me guess, now you understand why we broke the Law.”

“I do,” Caius says. “Would do it again.”

“Good man. I’ll call Noah, see if he can spare the time. You want a place at Pineridge?”

Caius hesitates. I watch the muscles in his forearm tense and release, like he’s fighting an invisible opponent.

“No,” he says finally. “Not yet. If it gets bad, we’ll go to ground.”

Slade’s voice is low, almost kind. “You got it, cousin. But—just in case—you want us to take care of the source?”

He means the Board. My father. Anyone who ever tried to own us.

Caius is silent for a long time. Then, “No. Not unless they come for us.”

Slade laughs again, a sound that would be charming if I didn’t have a feeling the man on the other end was someone who would kill and not think twice. “Always knew you had a soft spot.”

“Fuck you,” Caius says, but he’s smiling now, just a little.

“Text me the address you need secured. Stay alive, Caius… and take care of your woman.”

The line goes dead.

We drive in silence for a minute, the world rushing by outside.

I finally ask, “Who was that?”

He glances over, and this time he really looks at me. “Slade. My cousin. One of the Pineridge boys.”

One of the defectors.

“You trust him?” I ask.

He nods, once. “With my life. With yours.”

I think about that. About all the times I tried to trust and love my father. About all the times I’ve let myself believe it would be different this time.

And now, my life was in the hands of a boy who ruined me and his cousin who is one of the most hated men at the Academy.