Barren Vows (Fates of the Bound 3)

“Please, Lila. It’s my decision.”

“As you wish,” Lila said at last.

After a few moments of awkwardness, the pair resumed their earlier good humor. They enjoyed a pleasant breakfast, both chuckling as they rehashed childhood memories. For a while, it felt as though they had become shadows of those girls again, promising they’d strike out on paths that their mothers had not laid out for them, blind to the knowledge that life is a product of choices that do not belong solely to oneself.

Memories soon gave way to the present, and by seven o’clock, Lila had finished her meal. While Alex cleared the dishes and carried them away, Lila briefly thought of hitting the obstacle course for her morning workout, then realized the stupidity of that idea.

Her belly was still sore. It might be days before she could go for a jog.

Even if she was well enough to work out, she no longer belonged in the security office anyway. The entire building stood as her gravestone. Perhaps she’d run along the estate’s gravel paths from now on, or perhaps she’d use the executive gym in Wolf Tower like her mother and sister.

Lila groaned at the thought. Now that she was prime, she’d never be able to get away from the chairwoman. She’d see her every single day of every single week of every single year for the rest of her life.

She nearly crawled back into bed and hid under her blankets. No one would fault her for it. She could always say that she needed time to recover after her surgery.

The bed did look so very cozy.

Instead of succumbing to temptation, she trudged to her desk and plopped down in her chair, peeking at her palm with long sigh. Tristan had called at least a dozen times during the night. She nearly typed out his name, but stopped after her eyes strayed to the window. It was still a bit early. She’d let him sleep and call him later. After all, she still had no idea what to tell him, much less how to tell him. She had no desire to start the day with a fight, especially one that would end in a breakup.

She would lose him the moment she told him. She already knew it.

Turning to her desktop, she pulled up the crimson logon page for Randolph General. She entered a user ID and password from one of her dummy accounts so that what she searched for would not get back to anyone. After typing in Dubois’s name on the patient search screen, she pored over the results, hoping the senator had done his initial fertility testing at Randolph General. Most interns did.

Lila was rewarded with a hit. Though Dubois’s test results did not mean much to her in detail, it did confirm that his doctors had ruled him fertile several years before. From what Lila could tell, the records had not been altered, not unless the original doctor had lied in his report. In addition, Dubois had not been seen for any major illnesses at the hospital.

That didn’t mean he hadn’t been treated elsewhere, though.

She retrieved her star drive from her secret compartment with Dubois’s most current test results, then redacted Dubois’s name from the files and saved his past fertility test.

After sneaking into BullNet and downloading his medical files from the onsite health clinic, she pulled up her snoop programs. Once she and Sutton had concluded their meeting the night before, she’d checked her search results on the stolen Bullstow data. Unfortunately, she’d gotten no hits. In a drowsy haze, she’d written a quick but very general search to run during the night, all in the hopes of finding more traps in the code.

Her search hadn’t revealed anything.

Lila drummed her fingers upon her knee as she contemplated her search parameters. She’d looked for a similar trap to the one she’d found in the BIRD. Unfortunately, she had no idea if the BIRD had been Reaper’s first hack in BullNet or his last.

Lila hoped it was his last. The BIRD trap had not been that sophisticated. It would be easier for her to find something cruder.

But the fact that she had not found anything in her first two searches didn’t bode well.

After she set up a new search, Lila took a quick shower and dressed in a dark sweater, dark trousers, and her heavy motorcycle jacket. Then she grabbed her star drive and a scarf and padded downstairs.

A footman opened the front door of the great house with a flourish, his boots shining as the sun peered over the horizon, reflecting off the polished leather.

Lila shivered as she stepped out into the morning and adjusted her scarf.

A sharp whistle caught her attention.

Sutton jogged past the fountain toward her. Streams of water sprayed into the air, gurgling and bubbling as they dove and hit the surface.

“You’re up early,” Lila called out.

“I could say the same for you. Figured you’d be up and about, though. I hoped I might have a word,” Sutton said as soon as she reached the door.

“Always.” Lila tugged her jacket around herself, hoping Sutton didn’t notice the servant’s garb underneath. The commander would complain that she was too ill to meet with spies today.

Fortunately, the commander’s mind had traveled elsewhere.

The pair walked down the gravel path between the great house and the garage, their feet crunching the rocks, the wind rattling the leaves of each shrub and rose as they prowled past. At last, Sutton paused and sat upon one of the stone benches, a wordless request for a moment’s conference.