Page 16 of Bound By Her

“I don’t deal in girls.”

Her voice was ice.

Callen spread his hands in mock innocence. “Then don’t buy the girls.”

Adria exhaled slowly through her nose. The insult was obvious. It was well known that she had put a stop to women and child trafficking in her sector.

She sipped her tea, letting the silence stretch.

“You misunderstand me, Callen,” she said smoothly. “I do not deal in girls. Which means my associates do notdeal in them, either. If this is your best offer, I respectfully decline.”

She moved to rise, eager to be free of this meeting?—

“I thought you might say that,” Callen murmured.

From inside his suit pocket, he pulled another envelope.

A much older one.

Adria stilled.

The wax seal was faded but unmistakable.

Her father’s crest.

Callen opened it. “This is an agreement your father and I drafted shortly after your mother’s treason.”

A cold sweat broke across Adria’s skin.

Once someone joined the Nine, death was the only way out. When her mother, Sophia, had tried to escape, Adria’s father couldn’t bring himself to kill her—so he had sold her to the Triune instead.

Her fingers felt numb as she took the envelope. The parchment was brittle under her touch.

“Your father extended the offer after your mother’s…stunt,” Callen said. “That land was part of her dowry. He wanted to rid himself of all reminders.”

Adria remembered.

Her father had burned everything. Photos, keepsakes—every trace of Sophia erased from existence.

All Adria had left was her mother’s purple coffee mug.

Prior to her ascension, Adria had believed the lie her father told her—that her mother had jumped to her death.

Which in a way, wasn’t far from the truth.

For years, Adria had been clawing her way up the ranks, brick by brick, seat by seat. She had worked with X, with the goal of her mother’s freedom in mind.

A seat at the Triune’s table.

The power to bring her mother back.

The risk was unimaginable. Working with X, an outsider, was treason. But for her mother, Adria was willing to risk everything.

Now, Callen held a piece of that past in his hands.

Adria wanted to hate her for leaving. But instead, she worried.

Worried she would forget her face or the feel of her fingers in her own.

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