Chapter 17 · The Safehouse Lie

"Put the ledger down, Ayla." Kade's hand closed around her wrist before she could pull the book from the iron box.

His grip was hot. Too hot. A thin blue line burned beneath the skin of his palm, and the mark on her wrist answered with a sharp pulse.

"Let go," she said.

"The floor is coming apart. We have maybe two minutes. Pick the book or pick your friend. You don't get both."

Behind them, the safehouse shook hard enough to throw dust from the ceiling. A support beam cracked. Sable shouted from the lower room, followed by the ugly scrape of metal against stone.

Ayla twisted against Kade's grip. "You knew this place was trapped."

"I knew the company would find us. I didn't know they'd bring a breaker team."

"That's not better."

"No. It really isn't."

He had the ledger in his other hand. The old cover was swollen from age and black around the edges, but the silver lock on its spine was still sealed. A soul-lock. The kind rich families used to keep their worst secrets from hunters like Ayla.

She could see the debt marks around it. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.