Chapter Thirty-Nine Reed
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Reed
“He was with us in Rome when your chain was removed and your tracker went back online. It doesn’t make sense, but I’m looking at him on camera with my own damn eyes,” Julian said, his voice taut, strung like a wire ready to snap.
“What’s going on?” Gideon filled the doorway. Worst timing imaginable. For one, Hollis was perched on my lap. And the more obvious reason, Julian just confirmed the unthinkable: Gideon had drugged his own sister.
Hollis froze, her breath catching.
“Don’t let him know you know. Just get back here safely,” Julian said before the line went dead.
Rage surged through me like a blowtorch. My fists clenched, resting at her sides where I’d been holding her. The weight of my Glock pressed hot and insistent against my back, urging me to draw.
I’d walked a fine line since proclaiming my faith years ago.
It’d been a tough balance to seek justice without taking it into my own hands unless it was on a mission or in self-defense, but I’d managed.
Maybe there’d been a few questionable gray areas, but overall, I knew vengeance wasn’t supposed to be mine to take.
So I couldn’t slit Gideon’s throat for what he’d done to her.
I might have to keep reminding myself of that, though. Because every second we stood here, I could feel myself falling off the cliff. I even went so far as to turn down the volume on my conscience so I could push outside the gray into the dark and tell myself it was okay to take this man’s life.
“Well?” Gideon’s short question punched through my thoughts as Hollis brought the phone between our bodies.
“That was Julian, just checking on me. No update yet.” She quickly slid off my lap. I steadied her, though my own balance was shaky with fury.
My face burned as I locked eyes with Gideon, forcing myself not to go for my gun.
The enemy—no longer her brother in my eyes—leaned against the doorframe, arms folded, eyes sharp as the scalpels I wanted to use to peel back his flesh.
I’d been angry with Tristan before, with whoever had done this to her . . . but having the enemy in plain sight flipped a switch in me.
“And you were on his lap, because?” he pivoted, not pushing back on the call like I’d have expected of someone who’d kidnap their own sister and erase her memories.
“I think it’s fairly obvious at this point why.” Hollis’s calm delivery was a blade sheathed in silk. No tremor, no hesitation. “Tell me it’s safe to fly.” She linked her arm through mine, chin tipped up with bravery.
Gideon’s gaze lingered, dissecting me as though he could chip away my layers and read my intent with his sister. “It is.” He pushed off the doorframe, nodding.
Her poise continued to impress me, but I could feel the air shift, like static before a storm. Gideon had to have sensed it, too.
“I thought you didn’t like my sister. That you barely tolerated her.
What happened these last few days? I didn’t ask before, but I’m asking now.
” His steady, even tone about sent me over the edge.
How the hell could he stand there like he hadn’t just lied, hadn’t betrayed every kind of oath imaginable?
“Looks can be deceiving,” I said like a reflex. “So can words.” I bit down hard, keeping myself from leveling my 9mm at him.
Easton came up behind Gideon, meeting my eyes, delivering a silent message: I know. “We should move. Window’s tight before shit blows up again.”
Tell me about it.
“You find anything useful searching the rest of the house?” Hollis asked, slicing through the tension.
Gideon shook his head once, then stepped aside, letting us pass first. Nothing like having to turn my back to him. Betrayal always did cut the deepest when it came from blood.
The flight back was rough, the helicopter pitching and bucking in the crosswinds.
Rain peppered the glass, a steady drumming that kept my nerves wound up.
The cabin shuddered with every gust. I didn’t let go of Hollis’s hand, hers cool against mine, and my other never strayed far from the cold steel at my spine.
Only when we touched down behind the hotel did my lungs unclench and the storm take a break.
Rain slicked our path, carrying the tang of wet asphalt and fuel as we walked, Easton leading the way since he lived here.
I hadn’t been expecting Ryder, Carter, and Sebastian to be waiting for us by a side door like judges at an execution.
We stopped in front of them and Gideon cut to his questions first. “Did my brother and Gwen uncover something?”
Carter remained quiet, his hand drifting to his weapon first. Ryder and Sebastian followed suit, shifting into formation like wolves boxing in prey with Easton and myself.
“What the hell is going on?” Gideon hissed, his hand sliding toward his weapon.
I’d been prepared for this moment. My barrel pressed against his temple in a single motion, stopping him from drawing his weapon.
His chest heaved, his eyes cutting sideways to me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growled low.
The door behind us opened. Julian came out with his laptop open. He didn’t speak, and he probably had no words, given what he’d found out. He spun the screen around and hit play.
On-screen, Gideon carried Hollis’s limp body into a black windowless van. Her head lolled against his shoulder.
The footage was crystal clear, not blurred. It was him.
Gideon’s arms dropped, his whole frame going rigid. He was either a hell of an actor or truly shocked. “That can’t be me.”
Julian zoomed in, frame tight on Gideon’s face to confirm the truth.
“There’s no way. This has to be AI deepfake shit. Someone planted it for you to find, knowing you’d try to undo your own source code. You of all people should know it’s bullshit.” Gideon’s voice cracked, but his eyes stayed hard on the screen.
“It’s not fake,” Julian shared, nostrils flaring, eyes on his brother.
Gideon let go of a deep breath and raised his palms slowly, forehead tightening. He stared at Hollis, then back to the damning video. Finally, he sank to his knees.
She’d surely seen her brother standing unflinching before kings and killers—not that she could currently remember that—but something told me she’d never witnessed him bowing to the ground in submission.
I kept my gun trained, finger hovering near the trigger, every nerve alive to his slightest movement.
“Lock me up.” Gideon slowly interlaced his hands behind his head. “In tempore veritas,” he added under his breath.
Tears spilled down Hollis’s cheeks as she translated: “In time, there is truth.”
“Find out who the hell made me do that,” Gideon said, his voice rough. “Because if that’s really me, the only way I’d ever do that is if someone else was in control of my own damn mind.”