Elias felt the phone vibrate in his pocket like a pulse. He fished it out with one hand, thumbed the screen, and the name on the display tightened his shoulders before he even answered.
Carlos.
He stepped into the bathroom without thinking. He closed the door behind him so the sound of his voice wouldn't wake Amara.
He listened to Amara's even breathing through the thin wood and let it steady him for a breath.
He put the phone to his ear.
"They didn't kill him," Carlos said right away, like throwing words into a room and waiting for them to light up. "I sent them to kill Dominic Cross, and Grigor let him live. They didn't kill him."
Elias closed his eyes.
The bathroom tiles were cold under his bare feet. He could feel the motion of the world catching in its throat, the way everything flames when a plan goes sideways.
