CHAPTER 12 - Midnight Confessions

The Barroom was empty at eleven-thirty.

Sienna had cleared everyone out hours ago, locked the doors, killed most of the lights. Only the emergency exit signs glowed red in the darkness, making the space look like something from a horror movie.

I sat at the bar, Ruby's knife strapped to my thigh, a wire taped to my chest underneath my jacket. Albert was positioned in the back office with a sniper rifle. Derek had the rooftop across the street. Marcus and Knox were in a van two blocks away, listening to every word through the wire.

We were as ready as we could be.

It did not feel like enough.

"Testing," I said quietly. "Can everyone hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Albert's voice came through the tiny earpiece they had given me. "You are not alone, Eva. Remember that."

"I know."

But I felt alone. Sitting in the dark, waiting for someone who wanted me dead, knowing my mother died this same way—lured into a trap by people she thought she could trust.

History was repeating itself.

The front doo