The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 147

Chapter 133: War Council-2

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The tactical piece the part I’d been waiting for, and the part that made my chest beat almost loudly was Bella’s.

She set it out like a business proposal. Cole believed Bella was a pressure point. He’d been watching, so he knew the state of us, knew Tom’s existence, knew how Bella mattered, so she was going to use that.

She was going to appear to give Cole exactly what he wanted.

“Bella,” I said.

“He needs to believe the pressure worked,” she said. “He needs to think I took Tom and left that faced with the threat, I chose my son over you and walked. It’s what he’d expect. It fits the story he’s built about leverage and family.” She looked at me steadily. “Once he believes he’s won, he surfaces. He makes contact. And when he does, we have everything we need to put him in a room with law enforcement and a very complete file.”

“You’re using yourself as bait,” I said.

“I’m using his assumptions about me as bait,” she said. “There’s a difference.”

“Bella”

“Caleb.” Her voice was quiet and completely certain. “This is how it ends. I’m not in danger, I’m visible and monitored with Tom safely elsewhere. The risk is managed. What isn’t manageable is a man who believes he has indefinite leverage over our family because our son exists.” She held my gaze. “He has to believe it worked. And I’m the only one he’ll believe it about.”

The table was silent as Lena nodded, slowly. Diana said nothing, but she was watching Bella with an expression I hadn’t seen on her face before, something that was almost, cautiously, close to respect.

I looked at the woman sitting at the other end of the table and thought of every version of her I’d known the quiet girl in my penthouse I’d barely seen, the Iron Empress across a boardroom table, the terrified mother holding a four-year-old while the world burned the story down around them – and thought how none of those versions quite contained what she actually was.

“All right,” I said.

She didn’t look relieved. She’d known I’d agree. “Then we need to talk logistics,” she said, and turned to Lena. “Two clean channels of communication between me and the team at all times. I want sight of Tom on a live feed from the moment I leave until the moment I’m back.” She paused. “And someone needs to brief Tom’s security without telling Tom anything that would make him afraid.”

“I’ll handle Tom’s security brief,” Diana said.

Everyone looked at her. She looked back, unhurried. “He trusts me. I’ll tell him we’re playing a game, he won’t think anything of it.”

Tom trusted her, that had happened over croissants and dinosaur conversations and two evenings of Diana sitting at our table in the quiet, pretending not to enjoy it.

“Okay,” Bella said.

12

<Chapter 133 War Council-2

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Diana nodded, and the meeting continued, and sat in the room full of people who had each, in their way, decided to be here – Ethan who had no obligation, Diana who had every reason not to, Lena who had made this her professional purpose, James who was more family than employee and I thought: this is what I couldn’t have built alone.

This was the thing my father had never managed.

People who stayed.

I walked Bella to the hallway after everyone dispersed. She had her phone out, already on the logistics call with Lena, and she paused it when I put a hand on her arm.

“I need you to know,” I said, “that I have never, in my entire life, been more aware of what I would lose if something went wrong.”

She looked at me, something soft moving across her face. “Then make sure your team is good,” she said.

“Bella.”

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