Chapter 4

After I switched off the radio, I calmly started packing up my things in the safe house.

I only took a few black tactical outfits I could move easily in. I could get heavy armor on the black market in North Africa.

Everything else, including the cheap ring Lorenzo had once tossed me, I left on the table.

But when I pried open the combination lock on my hidden compartment, the waterproof bag I'd stuffed full was empty.

The three million dollars in Swiss bank bearer notes I'd kept inside it had vanished.

I searched every corner of the safe house, even the air ducts, and found nothing.

How could bearer notes just vanish?

I gripped my gun and was about to run a program to trace the intruder when someone kicked the blast door open.

Emily strolled in without a care, fingering a blood diamond necklace.

"Isn't it pretty? Mom just had a black-market dealer send it over. It's super rare. It cost three million dollars."

That was exactly how much was missing from my compartment.

I turned in disbelief to my mother, who'd walked in right behind her.

"You cracked my lock without asking and took my bearer notes?"

My mother's expression darkened at once.

"What do you mean, your notes? The family pays for your guns and your food. What do you have that isn't ours? And you think you've been wronged? You ungrateful brat!"

It wasn't the same thing at all.

If the family had really been out of cash and needed funds for the front line, I'd have slammed the money down on an arms dealer's table without a second thought.

But my mother had stolen my safety net just to buy Emily a necklace that was useless in a firefight.

I stepped forward and raised my voice. "Taking without asking is stealing! You broke the mob's most basic rule!"

Lorenzo stormed in and slapped me across the face, then jabbed a finger at me.

"Selena, watch your mouth!

"What do you mean, stealing? That's your mother. How dare you talk to her like that!"

My mother cut in. "Selena, have you lost your mind? Why are you keeping score with your own family?

"I only took your bearer notes because a woman carrying that much money around is asking for trouble.

"Besides, Emily got a scare today. You're her big sister. So what if you spend a little on a gift to calm her down!"

But that was my escape fund. For five years, I'd saved it from the money I earned on hundreds of near-suicidal missions for the family. Those jobs had left scars all over my body.

I'd never let myself buy high-end protective gear or get treated at a top private hospital. I wouldn't even swap my sniper rifle for a custom one that fit my grip.

"Give it back."

I glared at Lorenzo, my eyes bloodshot.

"Give me back my notes. Every last dollar."

Guilt flickered across my mother's face, but arrogance replaced it in an instant.

"It's already been transferred to a black-market account! No refunds on deals at this level!

"Besides, you didn't even hold the line today. What right do you have to decide what happens to that money!"

Emily teared up and timidly tugged at the sleeve of Lorenzo's suit.

"Lorenzo, don't fight with Selena. It's all my fault...

"How about I return the necklace to the dealer? The penalty fee can come out of my allowance."

She offered to return it, but clutched the necklace as if her life depended on it. Her voice was full of reluctance and self-pity.

My mother pulled Emily behind her protectively.

"We're not returning it. Let's see who dares take it from you. Selena, if I'd known you were this ungrateful, I never would have brought you back!

"Get down to the basement and think about what you've done. No one gives her food or water without my permission!"

Lorenzo stepped forward, wrenched my arm behind my back like I was a prisoner, and forced me down to the basement.

"Let go! I didn't do anything wrong!"

I fought back with everything I had.

But I was no match for two battle-hardened men.

The heavy iron door locked shut.

I slid slowly down the wall until I was sitting on the floor.

My mother had stolen my bearer notes, then blamed me, calling me selfish and inconsiderate. My brother had hit me without even asking what happened.

But Emily could spend in one night at a ball what I'd risked my life for a year to save.

Why were they taking away my escape fund and expecting me to make sacrifices for her without complaint?

I curled up in the dark corner and bit my lip hard so I wouldn't make a sound.

For the next few days, everyone at the estate ignored me to teach me a lesson.

They left me off the supply list and shut me out of tactical discussions.

They thought isolating me like this would make me crack and come crawling to apologize.

After five years at the estate, I was used to being invisible.

The cold shoulder no longer bothered me.

During the chaotic changeover along the defensive line, I used a backup terminal to contact the owner of a smuggling boat.

No security camera caught me picking the lock or slipping into the night.

No one noticed me erasing every trace of my DNA from the safe house.

I threw the bloodstained clothes I'd worn when I took bullets for Lorenzo into the incinerator. My tactical notes, full of family secrets, went in with them and burned to ashes.

I took apart the silencers my mother had given me over the years and dumped the pieces into the sea.

Once I had my permit to enter North Africa, I took one last look around the estate that had held me prisoner.

The hall's wall of honor displayed only photos of Emily at charity galas.

The medals I'd nearly died to earn had been tossed into a drawer. One even propped up a wobbly table leg.

I didn't want to stay one more second in this so-called family.

I shouldered my battered tactical bag and disappeared into the early morning sea fog.

My radio kept lighting up with calls on the encrypted channel. The front line was probably in trouble, and they wanted to force me to be cannon fodder again.

I blocked the channel without replying.

When the next bloody battle began, everyone would protect Emily and no one else.

I didn't want to be that pathetic shield again, listening to those bosses shower her with hollow praise.

And I didn't want them dismissing me with the same condescending line.

"Well, Selena pitched in too. Even if she didn't earn any credit, she worked hard." That was all I'd ever get.

I shut down all my contact channels on the dark web and boarded an armed smuggling boat bound for North Africa.

Wherever I went from here, whether I lived or died, they'd never see me again.