Chapter 30 · I repeated

He went still.

I felt the answer in the way his fingers tightened around my sleeve.

"Say it," I repeated.

"You want the truth?"

"I want something that isn't another warning."

"Fine. Olympus didn't just use you as an assassin. They used your mind as a storage system. Every mission. Every target. Every command. They buried it behind the locks so you couldn't refuse orders or remember who gave them."

"Victor."

Jax's breath caught.

That was answer enough.

"You know his voice," he said.

"I know his name."

"You heard him in the log."

"And you knew what he was going to say before the recording finished."

"I knew the pattern."

"Liar."

I pushed my hand against his chest. He caught my wrist again, but this time he did not squeeze. His thumb rested against the inside of my arm, right over the frantic beat.

"You don't get to interrogate me while you're half on top of me," he said.

"Then get off me."

"Can't."

"Convenient."

"The wall is two inches from my back. You want me to climb through it?"

"I've seen you do worse."

The corner of his mouth moved. Not a smile.