Aria’s POV
Romanov didn’t sleep that night. I know because I didn’t either, and somewhere around three in the morning I found him still in the study, going through staff records with the kind of focus that made the air around him feel dangerous.
“You think it’s someone inside,” I said, settling into the chair across from him.
“I think,” he said, not looking up, “that someone knew exactly where to find you and Elena in the garden two days ago. That’s not luck. That’s information.”
“Staff have always had access to the grounds.”
“Staff I vetted personally.” His jaw tightened. “Which means either my vetting failed, or someone I trust is lying to me.”
He didn’t say it, but I heard the unspoken half of that sentence anyway. And I don’t know how to tell which one it is anymore.
By morning,
