Page 75 of Obsession
“I’m getting realistic. Oisín isn’t going to help us.”
“He doesn’t need to help. He needs to distract. Saint watches him now, doesn’t he? Sol watches Saint watching him. Obsidian is moving routes around three different pressure points at once. The eastern corridor is restructured and vulnerable, and if we hit within the next few days, they won’t know whether they’re chasing Reaper ghosts, buyer leaks, or us.”
This isn’t some eventual betrayal I can pretend might still be negotiated away by silence or family or luck. Canon is moving in days, not weeks, and the window he sees is the exact one Moth has been trying to conceal under a dozen careful adjustments.
Varina’s voice lowers. “If this goes wrong, Saint will come for us.”
Canon laughs softly, and I hate how familiar it sounds. “Then we make sure it doesn’t go wrong.”
Bricks’ hand closes around my upper arm. “We’re leaving.”
Fenn is looking at us when we step back into the yard, suspicion already pulling at his face. Bricks smiles at him, though the expression has nothing friendly in it.
“Paperwork’s done?”
Fenn glances between us. “Yeah.”
“Great.” Bricks takes the folder from me before anyone can object, tucks it under one arm, and points toward the car. “Demo, stop looking like you heard a ghost confess and get in.”
Demo’s face goes pale enough to confirm every suspicion Fenn might have had, but he moves anyway. I keep my own face neutral, trying to hide what I heard but my heart is beating so hard I can feel it in my ears.
The car is barely out of the yard before Bricks speaks. “Whatever you heard, keep it for Saint. He needs to hear it straight from you.”
The drive back feels too long, the truth of what I heard burning in my chest. Even Demo is quiet, his nervous energy rubbing on me. Ten minutes out from the clubhouse, Bricks pulls out his phone at a red light, dials with one hand, and puts it on speaker.
Saint answers on the second ring. “Done?”
Bricks looks at me. “You need to hear this from him.”
My mouth goes dry as I explain everything. “Canon and Varina are going to move on the eastern corridor. Canon thinks the restructure makes it vulnerable, and he’s using the Reapers’ pressure as cover. He said the timeline is days.”
Silence.
Then Saint’s voice comes through, colder than I’ve heard from him in a while. “Where are you?”
“Ten minutes out,” Bricks says.
“Bring him straight to me. Don’t stop in the main room.”
The call ends.
Demo finally speaks from the back seat, quieter than I’ve ever heard him. “That was really bad, right?”
Bricks exhales. “Yeah, kid. That was really bad.”
***
Saint’s eyes go to me first the moment I step into the office. He moves around the desk and pulls me into his chest, holding me there for several seconds of silence. My hands rise to his waist, gently curling into his cut before he releases me.
Moth breaks the silence and the confusion that came with the embrace. “The eastern corridor is vulnerable for exactly the reason Canon identified. We’ve been holding visible routes steady while shifting internal response windows. If they hit the support path while Reaper pressure remains active, initial attribution would be muddy.” His contribution to the conversation tells me he had been on the other side of the phone while Saint had called earlier.
“Can we harden it without showing we know?” Saint asks.
“Yes,” Moth says. “If we make it look like a Reaper containment adjustment rather than a Rogue countermeasure.”
Bricks nods once. “Use their cover against them.”
Saint turns to me. “Where would Canon hit?”
