Page 67 of Fractured Loyalties
I leave quietly, just the way I came.
The door eases shut behind me, and I step into the lot without a sound.
But before I go, I leave something behind.
A micro-listener, smaller than a coin, nested behind a photo frame on her shelf. Wide capture range. Encrypted. Trained to her voice.
I tell myself it’s for her safety.
I tell myself it’s precaution, not possession.
I’m already in the car when I hear Celeste enter the office.
“Who is he?” she asks.
Mara’s answer cuts through me.
“Someone I trust.”
It should satisfy me. But it doesn’t. Because her voice wavers at the edges, like she’s not sure if she means it.
But it doesn't.
Then Alec steps in.
I hear his voice—measured, smooth. He isn’t a threat. I know that. His history is clean. He’s been in and out of Celeste’s life for years. They orbit like magnets: sometimes close, sometimes apart, but never gone. Whatever heat there is between them, it’s settled.
Still, hearing him in that room stirs something feral in me.
I hear him invite her to dinner.
Harmless. That’s what it’s supposed to be. A group thing. A morale boost.
I know the pattern. Group settings where smiles stretch too long. Where trust gets tested under laughter. Where people like Alec play casual until something shifts.
It’s not about Alec. It’s about Mara. And where she lets herself be seen.
She doesn’t need team dinners.
She needs walls and a door and me on the other side of it.
Watching what she can’t.
She comes outside about forty-five minutes later, tension tight in her shoulders, her steps slow like she needs air that isn’t recycled.
I wait until she reaches the alley before I step out of the shadows.
She sees me and doesn’t flinch.
“I didn’t text you,” she says.
“I didn’t need you to.”
She crosses her arms. “So, you’re just everywhere now?”
“When I need to be.”
She sighs. “So there's supposed to be a team dinner tonight.”
