Stolen Lies (Fates of the Bound 2)

She’s hot.

“She’s fifty. She’s old enough to be your mother.”

If my mother looked that hot, I would flirt with her too.

Tristan and Lila exchanged a glance. On one hand, they were both happy he’d begun joking a little again. On the other…

“You’re such a perv sometimes.” Lila snorted as her palm vibrated. Director Randolph had received the second tracer sample from the captain. The extra quantity will help our research. We understand it will be the last you can procure.

“Who’s that?”

“Sutton.” Lila shifted in her seat. Giving the tracer to her family’s R&D department had been automatic. You found an edge, you found a way to increase your family’s profits, and you did it.

She’d begun to have second thoughts, though. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea for the families to have access to such technology. She already tested her room and car for bugs, an act that seemed as mundane as brushing her teeth, taking a shower, or cleaning her Colt. Smart highborns checked for bugs; idiots forgot. It only took once to expose yourself or your family.

Tristan had been shocked and appalled by the need, especially in her own bedroom.

If the director’s team succeeded, the highborn would have to test their food the same way they tested for bugs. Everything they ate or drank would be screened by snoop programs. You’d open yourself up for attack if you did not. A whole new branch of etiquette would evolve around dinner. Perhaps they’d invent watches that could scan your food surreptitiously, or perhaps everyone would scan in front of everyone else and damn the hurt feelings.

That hadn’t been the only reason why she’d given the samples to her people, though. The Allied Lands needed a reliable test for tracers, a counter to them, what with the German incursions and—

Lila thumbed her palm absently. Who was she kidding? She hadn’t been thinking of the empire, and now she’d started something she couldn’t take back.

Perhaps it didn’t matter, though. The samples had a very short half-life, and the tracers were only half the technology. If the director’s team couldn’t figure out how the Germans tracked their targets, then all the tracers in the world would be useless.

Lila wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Tell us about Rebecca, Dixon wrote, interrupting her thoughts. There were tracers?

“Yes.” Lila told the two men everything she had found in Sioux Falls, even pulling up Shaw’s report so they could scan through it. “It makes no sense that these cases should be connected. The Germans shouldn’t be interested in nabbing oracles, and whoever is nabbing oracles shouldn’t be interested in Oskar.”

“Yes, but tracers have been found at both scenes, and only the empire uses tracers. We can only conclude that the culprits want b

oth targets. The cases are connected whether we want them to be or not. Perhaps we can worry about their motives later.”

“Motives predict behavior. If we can figure out why they’d snatch oracles, we can figure out if they’ll take more. They shouldn’t be interested. They think the women are con artists.”

“Perhaps King Lucas asked his men to find out if that’s true. I can’t see any German aristocrats giving a damn about them, and they’re the only other ones in the country who could afford mercs.”

Dixon sniffed the air suddenly, pointed to his mouth, and left the room.

“Guan must be here. Dixon pretends he can’t hear me when I ask him to switch off the heater, but if there’s food coming, he can hear the shop door from a kilometer away.”

“He’s barely moved for food in over a week,” Lila said, unable to suppress a hopeful grin. “He wouldn’t go down and get it unless he’s hungry.”

“I see that.” Tristan slid beside her on the couch and caressed her cheek, his skin warm and soft against her cheek. “Thank you for that.”

“I didn’t do anything but talk to him, which is what you should do as well. Stop avoiding him. He needs his brother.”

“Thank you all the same.” He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in close and tight. She tasted whiskey in his kiss, both of them hungry after a night cut short.

When the door opened, Tristan dropped his arms.

The floor received yet another guilty look.

While they ate, the group speculated at length about possible motives for King Lucas taking the oracles. Motives ranged from the reasonable (to destabilize the oracles) to the downright insane (to create an army of child oracles).

Complete with laser beams and jet packs.