Page 26 of Broken Souls

“But think about it, Varius,” she pushes. “There’s only one person in the house who will benefit from selling it to the highest bidder.”

I still even though every nerve inside me explodes with motion, an itch beneath the skin that wantsout.

Micha.

No, she wouldn’t…

But the fucking seed is already there, its roots shooting deep. The plant budding. Growing. Blossoming into a thorn-lined rose.

Why would she start a blood bond if she’s planning on stealing from me?I argue with myself. With us bonded, I’ll always be able to find her. There will be nowhere for her to run.

No,Motheris wrong. She’s fucking meddling, trying to split us apart so I never fall in love.

“I can’t fucking trust you,” I growl.

“Then don’t,” she says without hesitation. “Look into her yourself.”

Bordering on the edge of desperation, I do. I search for the bond Micha claims to have started. To prove that she is mine. That she would never –

My heart trips.

Tumbles all the way down to my fucking feet.

There is nothing there.

No bond.

No connection.

Nothing at fucking all.

It’s because we’re too far apart,I decide. We didn’t share much blood. We didn’t share enough to cross the distance from the house to here.

I look towards the two-story mansion lying behind the field of flowers. Then I start walking towards it, every step a mix of hope and fear. Hope that with the next step, I’ll feel the bond. Fear that I haven’t yet. That I never will.

Because it isn’t there.

Because she lied to me.

Is planning on stealing the ledger.

When I get to the house and still feel no bond between us, I storm up to my office. I spend the rest of the day and all of the next looking for the traitor, for someone to blame other than my little monster.

Everything I find, though, points to Micha Black.

To my chosen mate.

To the woman I thought I could trust.

Because there’s only one person who isn’t in the ledger, so they won’t be burned if it’s handed in to the police.

Only one person who doesn’t have the intel already in it, so they need the physical copy to sell.

Only one person whose account ID on a black market site matches the one that accepted the job to steal our ledger two weeks ago.

And only one fucking person who doesn’t love Khalid, who’d be okay with framing him to get what she wants.

My vision growing red, I yank open my office door. As much as I want to punish Micha myself, to deal with her as is my fucking right as her mate, I am duty bound to inform the reaper of her sins.