“Are you following me again, Tristan?”
“One of my people saw you drive in with the chairwoman’s daughter. You didn’t even bother to call me.”
“Of course I didn’t.” Lila said, taking another long peek at his eye. “It was only a couple of hours ago, and I have a lot of other business on my plate right now.”
“What did she say?”
“She confessed to everything, Tristan. Cried for an hour, begged me not to take her to Chief Shaw. We hugged, sang songs, drank Sangre, and braided each other’s hair. What do you think she said?”
“Okay, so then we break into her—”
“The bug I planted in her office offered much more intel than our conversation. Nothing I learn through the bug is admissible as evidence against her, and I’ll be surprised if it isn’t discovered by the end of the day, but I did find out she’s meeting with Valandra Schreiber tomorrow morning.”
“Valandra?”
“Thought that might interest you. Something I said spooked her, and she’s decided to run.”
“I knew it. She’s going to Burgundy. We have to get to her before—”
Lila shook her head. “We aren’t going to do anything. I already have someone tailing her. She and her guest will be in a holding cell by noon tomorrow, compliments of Chief Shaw.”
“Her guest?”
“Chairwoman Wilson asked Ms. Schreiber for some sort of forged documents for herself and a boy. I suspect they’ll be entry visas to Burgundy. Alex believes that either Simon or her brother Patrick will be accompanying her. Maybe both.”
“You don’t believe that. I don’t either. Who do you think it really is?”
Lila shrugged. “Simon’s a long shot. If he went missing from the Masson vineyard, it would raise an alert, and it would make it more difficult for the chairwoman to escape. She wouldn’t risk taking anyone with her who might get her caught, not unless the person was precious in some way. Simon is nothing to her now. He’s of no use, just like Alex.”
Tristan studied her face. “I didn’t ask who it wouldn’t be. I asked who it would. You already have an idea, don’t you?”
“Perhaps.”
Lila kept the idea to herself. It seemed too ludicrous to speak aloud. Overhead, a few birds called out, as if agreeing with her, the only noise over the closed shops around the estate.
“So how will we get to her before she runs?”
“We don’t. Like I said, we let Bullstow scoop her up.”
“You can’t be serious. All she’d be charged with is carrying fraudulent papers to Burgundy. That’s a few years at best. She made sure her son got twenty.”
“Fraudulent papers would still give her a sentence. She’s a chairwoman. Her auction price will be so high that she’ll never be able to pay it off. Any sentence is a life sentence.”
“She has fifty million credits hidden outside the commonwealth. She’ll pay off her mark after she completes her sentence. Even if the Holguíns become her master, it’s still not enough.”
“What would be enough? How long would a highborn have to spend as a slave before you’d be appeased?”
Tristan rubbed his cheek, flush with stubble. “I don’t hate every highborn.”
“Just most of us?”
“Why aren’t you pushing for more? Because she’ll lose her position as chairwoman the moment she’s convicted? Because Bullstow will turn over the estate and accounts to Wolf Industries after her trial? I know you. That’s not your end game.”
Lila considered Tristan, considered the chance he would do something stupid if she did not share, at least some part of her suspicions. “You’re right. That’s not my end game. I suspect that Chief Shaw will find something else in the car that’s far more damning than fraudulent papers.”
“Which would be?”
“Just trust me, Tristan. Come tomorrow morning, she’ll be taken care of. Legally. Then you and my mother can both get off my back for a while,” she sa