Chapter 131

Sloane

The knock came at a quarter to three.

Not Imogen’s knock. This was a fist. Three blows, hard enough to rattle the latch, and then a voice I knew through the door, low and flat.

“Sinclair. Get dressed.”

Owen.

I was already sitting up. I had been sitting up since the first blow, with my heart going so hard I could feel it in my teeth and Rhea on her feet inside me, and for one long second I wasn’t in Cassandra’s spare room at all. I was in a cold room on a mountain with a lock on the outside, and a man’s boots were coming down the hall, and I didn’t know which man.

Then the pipes ticked, and the clock at the end of the corridor said its quarter hour, and I was here.

“What’s happened?” I said.

“Ryan wants you. Kade’s office.” A pause. “Now, he said.”

I got dressed in the dark. Trousers, sweater, the boots I had left by the bed. My hands had gone stupid and slow, and it took me three tries to do the laces. When I opened