Chapter 16 · Switch Sixteen

"Stop the car." Rhys's voice came through the dash speaker flat, like he was ordering coffee. "I've got the original ledger in my hand right now, Keene. You want the council to see a forgery on record, or you want to talk like adults?"

Vale didn't look at the speaker. He looked at me, at the collar of my torn shirt where his mouth had been ten minutes ago, at the bruise blooming under my jaw that wasn't a bite, not yet, just a promise pressed into skin.

"Drive," he told the front seat.

"Sir, Tanner's got a hold order signed by two council seats," the driver said. "If I don't stop, that's obstruction on top of everything else."

I pulled my jacket closed with one hand, the other flat on the armrest so nobody saw it shaking. "He's bluffing about the original," I said. "There is no original. I keep the bond ledger. I've kept it eleven years. If there were a discrepancy I'd know before Rhys Tanner's secretary did."

"Careful, clerk." Rhys again, closer now, like he'd leaned into the mic. "That confidence is what got you stamped leftover on a floor full of witnesses.