Chapter 4

Kai stepped in front of her before she could blink.

"Jaxon." His voice was dangerously calm. "What are you doing here?"

"Protecting my investment." Jaxon strolled down the aisle, polished shoes tapping on concrete. "You looped the camera feed. Clever. Did you think I wouldn't notice my own system, Kai? I built it."

"You followed us."

"I didn't need to. I knew where you'd take her." Jaxon glanced at Aria and smiled. "Ten years with the man. He's very predictable when he's in love."

Aria's skin went cold. She slid her hand into her pocket and found her phone. No bars. Of course there were no bars. Six floors underground, behind concrete and steel.

Zoe's twenty minutes had just become the only clock that mattered.

"Where is the memo?" she demanded.

"Gone."

"The box was full yesterday."

"And now it's empty. Funny how that works." He lifted a small black remote and turned it lazily in his fingers. "It controls the fire doors. The ventilation. The lights. One click, and this room becomes very quiet."

"You wouldn't," Kai said.

"I already have."

Behind them, the stairwell door slammed. A heavy bolt slid into place. Somewhere in the ceiling, a vent clicked open.

Aria's pulse hammered. "People will notice."

"At nine tomorrow morning, when the archive clerk arrives?" Jaxon shrugged. "A tragic ventilation fault. Two ambitious lawyers, trespassing in sealed records after hours. The papers will be very sad."

"You're insane," she whispered.

"I'm thorough."

Kai moved. Fast. He lunged for the remote, but Jaxon sidestepped and drove a forearm into his ribs. Kai hit the shelves hard. Boxes rained down around him.

"Kai!"

"Stay back!" He coughed, pushing himself up. "Aria, don't..."

"Stop." Jaxon raised the remote like a conductor. "Both of you. Or I seal the vents."

Aria froze. Her hands curled into fists.

"What do you want?"

"Finally. A sensible question." Jaxon adjusted his cuffs. "I want you to drop the case."

"No."

"I haven't finished."

"I don't care."

"You will." His smile sharpened. "Because I'm not threatening you, Aria. I'm threatening him."

Her stomach dropped.

Jaxon turned to Kai. "You remember the merger authorization? Ashford and Harmon, eight months ago? I slid it across your desk with a stack of other paperwork. You signed it at midnight, half asleep. You never read page nine."

Kai's face drained of color. "No."

"Page nine moved the pension fund into a holding account. Your signature. Your firm's seal."

"You told me it was routine."

"It was routine. For me." Jaxon spread his hands. "Do you see the beauty of it? Aria wins her case. She proves the pensions were stolen. And the trail leads straight to one man. Kai Sterling. Disbarment. Prison. Everything he has, gone."

Aria stared at Kai. He was looking at the floor like it had opened under him.

"That's why you wanted me on this case," she said slowly.

"I wanted you to lose. Quietly. A small firm, a big opponent, a sympathetic judge. Nobody gets hurt." Jaxon sighed. "Then Kai opened the archive early and got sentimental, and here we are."

"You framed him twice," Aria said.

"Three times, if you count the ring."

Kai's head snapped up. "What?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Jaxon almost looked sorry. "She didn't blame you for that one. She blamed herself. I made sure of it."

Aria's breath stopped. "What does that mean?"

"Ask yourself why you left that ring on the pillow."

"Because I found the memo."

"Did you? Or did you find it exactly where I wanted you to, on exactly the night I wanted?" He tilted his head. "Do you remember taking the ring off, Aria? Really remember it?"

Her mouth opened. Nothing came out.

She remembered her hands shaking. She remembered tears blurring the room. She remembered the pillow.

She could not remember deciding.

"You drugged me," she whispered.

"A little sedative in your tea. A forged memo on his desk. A phone call to make sure you went home early." Jaxon shrugged. "You did the rest. Heartbreak is very obedient."

The room tilted. Six years of grief rushed through her, and every moment of it had been written by someone else.

Kai made a sound she had never heard from him. Low. Raw. Not a word.

He didn't lunge for the remote this time. He went straight for Jaxon's throat.

They crashed into the table. Metal shrieked. Papers flew. The remote skidded across the concrete and spun to a stop at Aria's feet.

She grabbed it.

Three buttons. Red. Green. A third, unlabeled.

"Aria!" Kai shouted, pinned under Jaxon's elbow. "Open the doors!"

"Which one?"

"Green! No, red! I don't know!"

Jaxon laughed, bloody-mouthed and furious. "Press the wrong one and you'll seal the entire level."

Her thumb hovered.

She thought of Zoe in the car. She thought of the clock ticking. She thought of Kai's hand around hers in the stairwell, cold as ice.

She pressed green.

Nothing happened.

Then the overhead lights died.

Total darkness.

Somewhere above them, the vent began to hiss. Aria smelled something sweet. Chemical. Faint, but growing.

"Kai?" she called. "Kai!"

"Aria, hold your breath!"

She dragged her scarf over her nose. Her eyes stung. The remote was slick in her palm. Dark shapes shifted in front of her. A scuffle. A grunt. The crack of a body hitting a shelf.

"Jaxon!" Kai's voice, hoarse. "Where is he?"

"I can't see!"

Footsteps. Running. Not toward her. Away.

Then a flashlight clicked on.

The beam sliced across the aisle and stopped on her face. Aria squinted. At the end of the row stood a figure, silhouetted, one arm cradling a gray archive box against her chest.

It wasn't Zoe.

It was a woman in a pressed suit, with long dark hair and red lipstick.

Mila Reyes.

"Hello, Aria," Mila said. Her voice was perfectly steady. "Please don't press anything else. I'm the only one who knows how to turn off the gas."

From somewhere in the dark, Jaxon's voice rasped out, strangled with shock.

"Mila. You were supposed to burn that box."

Mila's beam swung toward him. For the first time, she smiled.

"Change of plans," she said. "I work for someone else."

Aria's lungs burned. The sweet smell was thickening. Beside her, Kai swayed and caught himself on a shelf.

Mila lifted the box, looked straight at Aria, and added in a whisper that turned her blood to ice:

"And she's been waiting six years to meet you."