Page 48 of Bound

Lucian’s head turns. “What? Why?”

“Please.”

Rafe does and every message Carlos has sent appears on the screen.

My skin prickles.

Gregory leans closer. “What are you seeing?”

I shake my head, thinking. “I don’t know yet.”

Lucian’s voice lowers. “Erin.”

“Don’t rush me.”

Blaze mutters, “Brave.”

I ignore him. I read them all again. And again.

Proof. Mistake. First night. Queens. Ghosts. Come home.

My eyes narrow. “I feel like he thinks the Village is a stage. And he’s putting on a play with everyone he’s killed. Lucian and Gregory’s father. Carlos’s men. Isobel. Marina.”

Isobel looks up. Her eyes are hollow.

“That is what Carlos does,” she says quietly. “He loves a good show.”

Like the tragedy he wrote where Isobel turns on her love to follow the devil to hell.

“Yes,” I say. “But there’s something else.” My heart starts beating faster. “Everyone keeps asking who opened the gates for the attack on the Village. Your father. Marina. Carlos. The Morettis. Isobel. Whoever had the seal. But Carlos doesn’t talk about who; he’s saying where.”

Gregory’s gaze snaps to mine. “Where,” he repeats.

“Yes. Where the gates opened. Not who opened them. We know they used the delay to open one of the gates to get inside the Village.”

Lucian becomes so still I can feel the danger in him settling into attention.

Gregory’s voice quickens. “The twelve-second delay wasn’t only a timing flaw to get one man inside one gate to plant explosives for the attack?”

“No,” I say, pulse racing now. “It’s something more. I just don’t know what.”

Gregory nods. “A sequence of doors? A future map of how to get in all the gates?”

Blaze mutters. “God forbid one psycho be straightforward.”

“As a security protocol, no one is allowed inside the new walls right now. Only the vetted of the vetted have access to the rebuild. And whoever went in isn’t allowed to leave those gates until it’s finished and all new security systems are in place.”

“The new gates have never been opened?” I ask.

“No.” Gregory taps the screen. “If he wants to get into the new gates, to destroy the rebuilding of the Village, he needs movement. Security protocols. Gate responses.”

Rafe says, “He’s primed us to be emotional and reactive. He expects this last message to be the tipping point.”

“And make us want to run to the Village to defend what we have.” Blaze laughs. “Damn. It worked on me. I’m ready to storm our gates.”

“Exactly, Blaze. He needs us there, opening the gates, triggering the system.”

Rafe’s eyes lift. “And if we don’t⁠—”