45. Felicity
FELICITY
Nobody spoke for several seconds after that.
Rain battered the farmhouse windows while Shadow Division files sat spread across my father’s kitchen table.
The same table where he used to drink coffee every morning.
The same table where he apparently uncovered a conspiracy big enough to get him killed.
My chest tightened painfully.
Hersh’s hand stayed firm against my back.
Steady.
Grounding.
Every time fear threatened to pull me under tonight, he touched me somehow.
Like he needed to make sure I was still here.
Still alive.
Still his.
Rook closed the folder slowly.
“We’ll handle Mercer.”
Simple sentence.
Terrifying promise.
Wolf leaned back against the counter.
“You say that like the man’s already dead.”
Rook’s steel-gray eyes lifted calmly.
“He is.”
Silence.
Trigger blinked once.
“Well okay then.”
Honestly?
That should’ve scared me more than it did.
But after everything tonight…
the certainty in Rook’s voice almost felt comforting.
Like Mercer had finally crossed a line even monsters answered for.
Ava stepped closer to the table again.
“What about the leak inside witness relocation?”
“We’re already tracking it,” Rook answered.
“We?”
Rook glanced toward her.
“Shadow Division.”
Trigger frowned immediately.
“There’s more of you?”
Rook looked mildly offended.
“What did you think? I personally handled international conspiracies alone?”
Trigger considered that seriously.
“…kinda.”
Wolf rubbed his forehead.
“I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“You love us,” Trigger replied automatically.
“No.”
A tiny smile almost tugged at my mouth despite everything.
Almost.
Then Rook pulled another photograph from the folder.
And the warmth disappeared instantly.
The image showed:
my father.
Leaving a diner in town.
Looking over his shoulder.
Terrified.
The timestamp hit me like a punch.
Two days before he died.
“Oh my God…”
Hersh immediately stepped closer.
“What?”
I pointed shakily at the corner of the photo.
Dad’s face.
The fear in his eyes.
I’d never seen him look like that before.
Not ever.
“He knew,” I whispered.
Rook nodded once.
“Yes.”
My throat tightened painfully.
“He was trying to protect me.”
The grief hit differently now.
Not just anger anymore.
Not betrayal.
Fear.
Dad had been terrified near the end.
Terrified and alone.
And somehow that hurt almost worse.
Hersh’s fingers brushed softly against the back of my neck.
Gentle.
Careful.
Like he understood exactly where my head had gone.
“You said Mercer used me as leverage,” Hersh said quietly to Rook.
Rook nodded once.
“Yes.”
“Then why wait sixteen years?”
Good question.
The room quieted again.
Rook looked toward the storm-dark windows briefly before answering.
“Because Mercer believed you were easier to control from a distance.”
“He watched you suffer.”
Cold slid straight through me.
“He watched you suffer,” Ava realized softly.
Rook’s jaw tightened slightly.
“Yes.”
My stomach turned violently.
Mercer knew Hersh loved me.
Knew we’d been torn apart.
And instead of killing one of us…
he let us live with it.
Sixteen years.
That was cruelty beyond revenge.
That was obsession.
Hersh went very still beside me.
Dangerously still.
“You’re telling me Mercer knew her father separated us…”
Rook held his gaze evenly.
“And used it.”
The room felt suffocating suddenly.
Because now even our heartbreak felt violated.
Manipulated.
Observed.
Hersh looked away briefly.
And honestly?
That scared me more than his anger.
Because the pain in his face right then looked unbearable.
Rook noticed too.
Which was probably why his next words came quieter.
“Mercer thought pain would weaken you.”
Hersh’s eyes slowly lifted again.
Cold now.
Deadly calm.
“He was wrong.”
The way he said it sent chills straight through me.
Not loud.
Not emotional.
Absolute certainty.
And suddenly I realized something terrifying:
Mercer had spent sixteen years studying Hersh McDougal…
without understanding him at all.
Because heartbreak hadn’t destroyed Hersh.
It turned him into someone willing to survive anything.
Then Rook looked toward me.
And his expression shifted slightly.
More human somehow.
“Felicity.”
I swallowed hard.
“Yes?”
“You were never supposed to survive witnessing that murder.”
Silence crashed through the room.
Every muscle in my body locked instantly.
Rook continued carefully.
“The second Mercer learned Blaze came back into your life…”
His steel-gray eyes shifted briefly toward Hersh.
“…you both became targets for elimination.”