Chapter 13 Trust Is a Weapon Too #3
“Talk to me,” Elena said, because silence was where fear bred. “What are you doing?”
Matteo’s eyes didn’t leave the recorder. “Detecting the tag’s transmission signature.”
Elena’s stomach tightened. “And if it’s there?”
“Then I know where they want us to go next.” His voice stayed low. “It gives me a destination. It also gives them a confirmation point.”
Elena’s breath caught. “So you’re going to go.”
Matteo looked up. “Not the way they expect.”
Elena swallowed hard. “How?”
Matteo’s gaze held hers. “I’ll follow the destination with you kept in a state they can’t use.”
Elena stared at him. “A state they can’t use.”
Matteo’s mouth tightened. “Not dead. Not missing. Controlled.”
The word controlled landed like a bruise. Elena felt her body tense, the part of her that always expected a man to turn control into ownership. Matteo wasn’t a man like that. She knew it. But the enemy was forcing the same shape into every decision.
Elena forced herself to breathe. “You’re talking like you’re going to lock me away.”
Matteo’s eyes flashed, and for the first time he looked genuinely irritated. “I’m talking like I’ve been locked away before. I know what it does to a mind.”
Elena’s throat tightened, and she hated that his irritation wasn’t aimed at her. It was aimed at the world, at the system that had trained him to think this way.
She lifted her chin. “Then don’t do it. Don’t turn me into a cage.”
Matteo’s jaw flexed. “I won’t cage you.”
The promise sounded real enough to hurt. Elena didn’t trust promises anymore, but she trusted the way his eyes stayed steady.
“Then tell me the part you’re not saying,” Elena demanded. “What’s the hidden cost?”
Matteo’s gaze dropped to the recorder again. When he spoke, the words came slower, as if he had to pull them out of himself. “If I neutralize the tag, it means I have to open the signal path.”
Elena’s stomach tightened. “Open it.”
“Yes.” Matteo’s eyes returned to hers. “And that’s the part they monitor. They’ll see what I do. They’ll see that I noticed the tag.”
Elena’s pulse hammered. “So you’re sacrificing surprise.”
Matteo nodded once. “I’m trading surprise for certainty.”
Elena’s throat tightened. “And the certainty is - what? That we can stop them?”
Matteo’s gaze sharpened. “The certainty is that we’ll get a pursuit vector we can redirect.”
Elena stared at him, and the fear in her chest sharpened into a different emotion: anger at how close he’d gotten to making it sound noble when it was still dangerous. “You’re still deciding for me.”
Matteo’s expression didn’t flinch. “I’m deciding for survival.”
Elena’s voice dropped. “Survival for who?”
Matteo’s eyes held hers, unblinking. “For you.”
The simplicity of it hit her harder than any tenderness. Elena’s mouth went dry. She wanted to believe it. She wanted to let it settle into her bones and make her feel safe.
But safety was a lie the enemy used. Matteo knew it. That’s why he was guarding. That’s why he was bargaining instead of surrendering.
Elena forced her hands to unclench. “Okay,” she said. “Then your real plan is to follow the tag destination with the recorder. You neutralize the transmission path, and you redirect the pursuit.”
Matteo nodded. “Yes.”
“And then,” Elena said, “I decide whether to publish.”
Matteo’s expression tightened. “After.”
Elena swallowed. “After what happens.”
Matteo’s voice went colder, more honest than the earlier words. “After we reach the location they’re pointing at. After I confirm whether the tag destination leads to them or to a third party they want to sacrifice.”
Elena’s stomach flipped. “A third party.”
Matteo didn’t look away. “Someone they can use as a scapegoat. Someone they can make disappear to keep the chain intact.”
Elena felt her skin go cold. She’d seen enough to know how The Shadows worked. They didn’t just eliminate threats; they erased witnesses and turned bodies into noise.
Her recorder in his hand felt heavier now, like it had become a detonator.
“Elena,” Matteo said, and the way he said her name wasn’t gentle.
It was a warning wrapped in a voice that didn’t want to scare her.
“If you publish before the tag is neutralized, they’ll track you through the signal path created by the proof’s transmission.
They’ll use it to route more compliance commands. ”
Elena’s throat tightened. “So my voice becomes a tracking beacon.”
Matteo nodded once. “Yes.”
Elena stared at him, and the fear finally found an edge sharp enough to cut through her anger.
She understood the tactic now: honesty wasn’t just dangerous because it exposed the truth.
It was dangerous because it created a pattern.
The enemy would use her own actions - her desire to expose corruption - to map her movements.
She let out a breath that tasted like smoke. “Then we neutralize it.”
Matteo’s eyes held hers. “We try.”
Elena’s voice went quieter. “You keep saying try.”
Matteo’s jaw flexed. “Because I don’t know what they built into the tag beyond the destination signature.”
Elena’s heart kicked. “So there’s more.”
Matteo didn’t deny it. That was enough. She could feel the enemy layering complexity like they were stacking traps inside traps.
Elena stepped closer again, close enough now that the heat of him reached her. She didn’t touch him. She didn’t ask for comfort she didn’t trust. She just looked at him like she could force the truth out through her stare.
“Then tell me everything you’re afraid to say,” she whispered.
Matteo’s gaze tightened. His throat moved. For a second, he looked like he might refuse - not because he wanted to hurt her, but because he didn’t want her to carry more weight than she could handle.
Then his eyes flicked to the caravan window. Outside, the lot lights blurred in drizzle, turning the world into smeared halos. Somewhere beyond those lights, someone was waiting with a plan that depended on their movement.
Matteo finally spoke. “If the tag is embedded in the recorder’s signal, neutralizing it might require a physical interruption of the device.”
Elena’s stomach clenched. “Break it.”
Matteo nodded once. “It may destroy the recorder’s contents.”
Elena froze. “My proof.”
Matteo’s gaze stayed on hers. “Your proof could be lost.”
The room swayed slightly. Not physically - emotionally. Elena felt the floor of her world tilt, because the thing she’d fought to keep wasn’t just evidence. It was her voice turned into a weapon against betrayal. Losing it would feel like losing her mind all over again.
She fought to keep her breathing even. “Then you want me to hand it over so you can destroy it.”
Matteo’s eyes sharpened. “I want you to hand it over so I can decide whether they’re using it as a lure for you or as a lure for me.”
Elena’s throat tightened. “And if it’s a lure for me?”
Matteo’s voice went