"A third-grader whose mother has a twenty-three-day countdown."
The almost-smile disappears.
"I didn't mean—"
"You meant exactly what you said." Her voice has gone level. Judge Castellano, back behind the bench. "And you are right. Which is the worst part."
She eats an edamame in silence. Then another. I let her have the quiet.
"The man in the photograph," she says. "At headquarters. Who is he?"
"Roman Thorne. He founded Centurion Protection Group."
"Founded." Past tense. "What happened?"
"He was investigating a client's connections to a trafficking network. Seven months ago, his body was found at a shipyard in Oakland."
Her chopsticks pause mid-reach. The judge's face goes still in a way that is not professional.
"I'm sorry," she says. She means it. I can hear the difference.
"The only thing we know for certain is the DNA recovered from his watch did not match the body." I keep my voice level and factual, not the way this sits in my chest. "Surveillance from Kozlov's hard drive shows a possible match in three locations, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia. Face never visible, nothing confirmed."
"So he might be alive."
"He might be alive. He might be dead and someone used his watch to send us chasing shadows. We don't know."
She's quiet for a moment, turning the facts over the way she must turn evidence, weighing, measuring, looking for what doesn't fit.
"Seven months," she says. "That is a long time to not know."
"Yes."
"And you all just keep working."
"We keep working."
She picks up her chopsticks again. The miso arrives, steam rising from both bowls, and she wraps her hands around the ceramic.
"You carry things," she says. "Roman. The team. Seven years of watching me." She looks at me over the rim of her bowl. "Where does any of it fit in your life?"
Ah. There it is.
"It doesn't." I set down my chopsticks. "You were never part of the structure, Angelina. You were the thing that broke it."
She holds my gaze for a beat too long.
"The spicy miso is acceptable," she says finally.
"High praise."
"Don't let it go to your head." She takes another sip. "The security rotation. Xander stays with Chesca during the trial?"
"Every day. Jax is backup if something changes."
"And if something changes with Jax?"
"Then Damian. And if something changes with Damian, I have a list that goes seven deep."