SavannahAfter the conversation with Noah, I didn’t waste another hour. There was a lot that needed to be done, and so that morning, I met Jack at a diner that smelled like burnt coffee and old grease, the kind of place where people said things they didn’t mean to and nobody cared. He gave me a look that said he’d already lost more sleep than was healthy, but he didn’t ask for details. He didn’t need to.“We start at the docks,” he said, sliding a paper cup of coffee across the table. “Burner phones. Who sold what to whom. If Tyrant set this up, someone on the inside moved information. We find that trail, we find who called the cops.”It sounded simple when he said it. It never was. But it was a place to begin, and that’s often the most important thing.We hit the docks that afternoon. The air smelled of fish and oil and diesel, and the whole place moved on its own rhythm. There were men moving, forklifts groaning, tarps shifting in the wind. We talked to bartenders who worked the lat
SavannahI’d barely slept since the raid. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw flashing red and blue lights, the cops yelling, and from a distance, people being dragged out in cuffs. And me, slipping out the back like a shadow that didn’t belong in the picture. It should have felt like a win, like I’d escaped something huge. Instead, it just made me sick. If Gloria thought I’d tipped the cops, I was finished. I’d tried to convince her of my innocence earlier, but it seemed she wasn’t convinced.By mid-afternoon the next day, I couldn’t take the silence anymore, and so I dialed the number Gloria had used to call me before, not even sure if she’d pick up. But then she did.“Savannah,” she said, cool and sharp, like she’d been expecting me. “Calling me already? Should I take that as guilt?”Her voice alone made the hair on my arms rise, but I forced myself to sound calm. “You can take it as me checking in. After what happened, I think you and I both need some clarity.”There was a pause o
SavannahThe night that followed was quite a chaotic one. I had barely slept that night. Gloria’s words kept chopping through my thoughts, reminding me that Luke’s life was in danger, and also of the promise that I had one shot. Morning came and went in a blur of coffee and restless pacing. I felt like my head had been hollowed out and refilled with one thing: find the rat.And so I started where it made sense to start: with people who owed me favors and hated Tyrant enough to talk. I felt like somehow this was all connected to him. He was in jail, yes, but he still had people who listened to his command in this city. People who worked for him.The mole had given me names, and one of them was a kid who sold for Tyrant on the docks. I found him in a run-down apartment above a closed laundromat. When I approached him, he didn’t look guilty or afraid like most people who find out they’re a suspect of a crime usually do. He answered my questions in bits and starts, the whole time, refusin
SavannahI was still shaking from what happened at the exchange. The sirens, the shouting, the way the cops stormed the room like they’d been waiting, it all replayed in my head every time I closed my eyes. I’d escaped, yes, but it hadn’t felt free. It felt like sooner or later I had to face the music, and that came sooner than I expected.I was on my phone contemplating this situation when my phone buzzed on the nightstand, the screen lighting up with an unknown number. As soon as I saw it, my stomach turned cold, because I already knew who it was. Gloria.I stared at it for a beat too long before forcing myself to pick up.“Savannah,” her voice cut through the line like a knife. It was cold and sharper than the last time we spoke. “I heard what happened.”I swallowed hard and gripped the phone tighter, searching for what to say, but she didn’t wait for me to answer. “You set me up. You tipped off the cops.”“No, I didn’t,” I said quickly, my voice firmer than I felt. “Gloria, I swea
SavannahI laid on my back, staring at the ceiling in the dark. The house was quiet, but my head was anything but. Gloria’s voice replayed over and over, like a cruel echo I couldn’t silence. “Someone you love dies.”I wanted to believe she was bluffing, that this was just another one of those scare tactics people used. But then I saw Luke’s face in my mind again, bound, guarded, helpless. That wasn’t a bluff. That was real. And no matter how much I wanted to tell myself that this wasn’t my fault, deep down I couldn’t shake the guilt. Luke had told me it was his choice, that he knew the risks. But still… it felt like I had put him there.The thought of accepting Gloria’s deal made my stomach twist. Oversee Tyrant’s zone? Become part of the same machine I’d sworn to expose? The very idea felt like betraying not just myself but everything I stood for. Yet every time I thought about refusing, the image of Luke being dragged away or worse snapped me back. No matter how ugly the choice was
SavannahThe SUV hummed along the road as we headed to where I could only imagine was their boss’ base. I pressed my back against the leather and kept my hands folded in my lap because the urge to claw at the door was stupid and useless and, besides, someone would notice.They blindfolded me when we got out. I heard boots, a door, the slick scrape of a hand across my shoulder. My heart raced like I’d been running, and I tried to breathe steadily, counting the seconds until then, the blindfold came off as softly as a curtain.I realized then that I was standing in a room. It was quieter than I expected. Not empty, but stripped of noise like a photograph. She was already there. The woman from the phone. She was lean, small in a way that made her look faster than she was, and sat at the table like she’d been waiting for me my whole life. Her hair was pulled back tight, her clothes plain but perfect. Everything about her was measured.“Savannah Ford,” she said, and gestured towards the ch