Novels by Favvy

The coordinates led to an old warehouse on the industrial side of the river, the kind of building that hadn't been used for anything legitimate in years. Adrian pulled security teams from three directions before they were even halfway there, but he didn't wait for them to arrive first. Neither did Ava."You're staying in the car.""No.""Ava, this isn't...""I'm not staying in the car, Adrian. That's my sister in there."He didn't argue further. There wasn't time to, and some part of him seemed to already know it wouldn't work.The side door was unlocked, which should have told them something. They went in anyway, Adrian ahead of her, a gun she hadn't known he carried held low at his side.The warehouse was mostly empty, crates stacked along one wall, dust thick in the beam of the flashlight Adrian swept across the floor. No sign of Lila. No sign of anyone."This is wrong," Adrian said quietly. "This is too easy.""What do you mean?""I mean nobody guards an empty build..."Before he

Adrian was already on the phone with security by the time Ava reached the car, giving orders in the flat, clipped voice she'd learned meant he was one wrong word away from losing his composure entirely."Pull every camera within six blocks of her building. I want her last known location in the next ten minutes."Ava climbed in beside him. "What did her assistant say?""That she left work early yesterday. Said she wasn't feeling well." He ended the call and immediately started another. "No one's heard from her since.""That doesn't sound like Lila.""No. It doesn't."The car pulled out of the estate fast enough that Ava had to brace herself against the door. She thought of the black sedan Lila had mentioned weeks ago, the one outside work, outside her apartment, outside restaurants, the one Ava had let slide to the back of her mind because there'd been too many other fires to put out since."She told me someone was following her," Ava said. "Before the text. Before any of this."Adrian

The account trail went nowhere clean. Every path Ava followed split into another shell, another name that led to a company that led to another name, until she'd filled three pages of notes that told her almost nothing except that whoever built this had wanted it unreadable on purpose.She was still at the desk past midnight when Adrian found her there, the same desk, the same lamp, the same look on her face he'd apparently gotten used to seeing lately."You need to sleep.""I need to finish this.""You've said that every night this week.""Because it's true every night this week."He crossed the room and set his hand flat on the folder in front of her, not aggressive, just final. "Ava.""Don't.""You confronted Victor alone.""I didn't need—""You confronted the one person in this house who might be the most dangerous person in it, and you didn't tell me until after?""I can handle Victor.""That's not the point.""Then what is the point, Adrian?""The point is I can't protect you if

Victor was in the library, a glass of something amber in his hand, like he'd been waiting for her.Ava dropped the photograph on the table between them. "You were there."Victor looked at it for a long moment without touching it. "Where did you get this?""That's not what I asked.""It's what I'm asking.""Victor.""You come in here throwing accusations, and you won't even tell me where the evidence came from." He finally picked it up, studied it, set it back down with a care that felt performed. "That's not how truth works, Ava. It goes both ways.""Is that you? In the reflection?""It could be anyone.""Don't do that.""Do what?""Play games with me. Not tonight."Victor's mouth curved, but there was nothing warm in it. "I've been called many things. A game player has never been one of them.""Someone sent me a photo of my own accident with your face standing in it. You don't get to be vague about that.""I could say the same about you barging into my library at this hour without a

Adrian found her still sitting at the table with the photograph face down in front of her. She hadn't decided yet whether to look at it again or throw it in the fire."Ava?"She didn't answer right away. He crossed the room and crouched in front of her chair, low enough that she had to meet his eyes instead of looking past him."What is it?"Ava turned the photograph around and slid it across to him.His brow drew together as he studied it. "Where did this come from?""It was delivered. No name. No note.""This wasn't your accident."The words landed harder than he probably meant them to. She hadn't corrected him yet, hadn't said anything about the timestamp, about how the wreck in that photo didn't match anything that had happened since he'd known her in this life. She wasn't ready to correct him. Not yet."No," she said carefully. "It isn't.""Then whose car is this?""I don't know."It wasn't a full lie. She just didn't know how to say the rest of it out loud without sounding like

The move happened before Ava had time to argue about it properly."You're staying here," Adrian said, and it wasn't phrased as a question, not even close to one."I have a room.""Had.""Adrian.""He knew which door was yours. He knew the layout. I'm not taking that risk twice."Ava didn't have the energy to fight him on it, not with the cut on her arm still tender under the bandage, not with six words in block letters still sitting somewhere behind her eyes every time she closed them. So by that evening her things had been moved into the east wing, into the private residence attached to his office, the part of the house she hadn't set foot in since long before any of this started.It felt strange walking into rooms that still smelled faintly like him. Like nothing had changed in there in years, waiting for someone to come back to it.The first few days were quiet in a way that had its own kind of tension. They orbited each other through the same rooms, careful, polite, like two peopl