The scout's report sat on my desk like a promise.
Target located. Neutral territory. Two miles north of border. Pregnant.
Pregnant.
I read the word three times, just to be sure.
Then I smiled.
"Perfect," I murmured to the empty room. "Absolutely perfect."
I'd been tracking her for days. Ever since Thomas had given me permission to "handle the situation." Such careful words. Such plausible deniability.
He was good at that.
But I was better.
I'd positioned scouts along the border. Paid informants in neutral territory. Called in every favor I had.
And it had paid off.
Sera Ashford was alive, pregnant, and completely vulnerable.
Everything I needed.
I picked up my phone. Dialed.
"Report," I said when the scout answered.
"She's staying with a rogue. Old woman named Ruth. Cabin in
