Page 39 of Tempest’s Torment

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes. I wasn't documenting your movements or reporting on your life; I was clocking a car that kept turning up in the wrong places." I set my mug down. "Everything I know about you, you've shown me yourself. The grocery bags, the florist, and this morning, you checked your door twice."

She's quiet for a moment. "You noticed that?"

"I notice everything."

She looks at her mug. "You didn't tell me about the SUV," she says.

"No."

Her head shoots up and her brows furrow. "Why?"

"Because telling you would have confirmed what you were already fighting to talk yourself out of, and I didn't have anything useful to attach to it yet. I wasn't going to hand you a confirmed threat and walk away." I look at the envelope. "I wanted something I could actually do with the information first."

She considers that. "Most people would have said something, made themselves feel better about knowing."

I grin. "I'm not most people."

"No," she says quietly. "You're not."

"Rogue started digging after Lorenzo's call. We didn't have a name attached to it, but we do now." I look at her. "Rogue will spend tonight pulling everything available. Connecticut records, any movement since, financial traces. If Evan Calloway has been in Boston more than a few days he'll have left a trail somewhere."

Her hands shake even as she’s holding her mug. "And then?"

I remain silent.

She looks at the envelope. "I've known what I'm dealing with for three years."

I nod. "I know."

She looks up at me, her eyes widen slightly. "You do?"

"I know you've been dealing with it,” I tell her, but she doesn't say anything, I lean back in the chair. "You don't have to convince me it's real."

Her fingers tighten around the mug for a second and then they slowly let go.

Three quiet knocks sound at the door, and I know instantly who it is. Lilah's head snaps toward it.

"It's Ghost," I say and her eyes find mine. "He's our president, he’s the man I called." She doesn't say anything so I continue. "He knows enough to help. I wouldn't have brought him here if I didn't trust him."

She holds my gaze for another second, then gives the smallest nod.

I cross the apartment and open the door. Ghost steps inside wearing his cut. He gives Lilah an easy smile.

"Hi, Lilah."

"Hi."

"I'm Ghost." He pulls out the kitchen chair and sits down. "Tempest tells me you've had a rough evening."

She nods once.

"We'll figure it out."

"He needs to hear what you told me," I say quietly.

She looks at Ghost and then back at me; I nod once, and after a long moment, she takes a breath and starts talking.