Page 48 of Fate, Interrupted

The thought arrives with cold clarity. I should have anticipated it and didn’t.

Greer holds my gaze for one more beat.

Then he turns and walks back into the warehouse, his footsteps steady and even, and he is gone.

Norah says nothing.

Neither do I.

Chapter fourteen

Norah

Ilook at Silas.

“Who was that?”

“Greer,” he says, the name carrying the economy of someone who doesn’t need to add anything to it. “My father’s older brother. He’s been with my father since before I was born.”

“And your father is going to know about me now.”

Silas looks at me steadily. “My father already knows about you. Not what happened tonight. You.”

That arrives with a weight I wasn’t prepared for—the awareness of existing in someone’s information before you’ve ever been in the same room with them.

“How?”

“Because he knows everything that happens in and around this operation,” Silas says, “and I’ve been spending time in a bookshop on Norwood for the past few weeks.”

The matter-of-factness of it is more unsettling than if he’d said it dramatically.

“And that’s a problem?” I ask.

He looks at me for a long moment. His expression says the present moment is more important than what it’s going to cost later.

“It’s complicated,” he says.

“You keep saying that.”

“It keeps being true.”

“Is it going to stay complicated?” I ask.

“Probably.”

“Okay.”

“Just okay?” he says.

“I’ve never been good at uncomplicated.”

His eyes light up.

“Your father’s waiting,” I say.

“He can wait another minute.”

His hands are still on my face. Mine are still on his jacket.