ANMELDENAnya’s POVThe yellowed sheet music sat on the stainless steel table like a ticking bomb. Thomas Vance—the man who was supposed to be a memory, the father Ethan had supposedly buried along with his conscience had vanished back into the shadows of the precinct, leaving me with a map to a grave I didn't want to dig.I stared at the coordinates. They weren't just numbers; they were a rhythm. Julian Rhodes had hidden the location in a time signature that only someone obsessed with his technical flaws would recognize. It was a 5/4 beat, shifted and stretched."Miller, time's up," the guard grunted, his hand hovering over his holster."I need that phone call," I said, my voice cold. I didn't look up. I just memorized the ink on the page. "And I need it now, or the next review I write is going to be about the security lapses in this intake center. I’ve already counted four broken cameras and a guard who’s sleeping in block C."The guard blinked, his posture stiffening. "One call. Make it qu
The doors of the van were flung open, and the world became a strobe-light assault of flashbulbs and screaming questions. "Anya! Over here!" "Is it true, Kai?" "Did Ethan Vance kill his father?"Officers with grim faces and heavy hands grabbed my arms, pulling me out into the frigid night air. I saw Marcus Stone being led into a separate side entrance, his face buried behind the lapels of his ruined jacket, the ultimate fixer finally broken. Further down, near a line of black sedans, I saw Ethan Vance. He was surrounded by a wall of men in tailored suits, his lawyers acting like a human shield. He looked at me across the chaos, and for the first time since I’d known him, the arrogance was gone. There was a raw, naked fear in his eyes. He knew."Anya Miller!" a reporter shrieked, shoving a microphone toward my face. "Was it worth the prison time? Is the Archive real?"I didn't give them a quote. I didn't give them the satisfaction of a soundbite. I just looked at Kai as they led him tow
Anya's povThe back of a police van is not a place for a lady, but since I’d spent the last few weeks being a fugitive, a prisoner, and a mountain-climbing stunt double for a snuff film, I figured I’d lost my "lady" status somewhere around the Nebraska state line. If there was a finishing school for critics who blow up federal property, I’d probably be the valedictorian.The walls here were cold, sweat-slicked metal that smelled of old rust and damp apprehension. The floor was a slab of reinforced steel that didn’t give an inch, telegraphing every bump in the road directly into my bruised tailbone. The only light in this rolling metal coffin came from the small, barred window in the back door, flickering with the strobing, hypnotic rhythm of the sirens. Blue, red, blue, red. It was like being trapped inside a very small, very loud disco designed specifically for people who had made a series of spectacularly bad life choices."You okay back there, Miller?" the driver yelled. I could he
AnyaI looked up from the snow. The sky was still a bruised purple, but the rhythmic thrum-thrum-thrum of a helicopter was returning. Ethan Vance was circling back. Of course he was. He was the director who couldn't leave the set until he was sure the leading lady was dead. He wanted to see the wreckage. He wanted to look down from his mechanical throne and make sure the "final note" was silent.But as I lay there, shivering and broken, I saw something else.A pair of headlights appeared at the bottom of the quarry road, tiny twin stars cutting through the dark. Then another pair. Then six more. They weren't the sleek, black SUVs of Ethan’s private security. They were white and blue, flashing with a frantic, rhythmic intensity. Local police. State troopers. The actual cavalry.And right in the middle of the convoy was a van with a massive satellite dish bolted to the top. A news crew. My people. Sort of.I let out a wet, painful laugh that turned into a cough. The broadcast had worked
Anya's POVThe world didn’t just end again, it tilted.It wasn't some poetic metaphor for my life falling apart. It was actual, screeching physics. The metal floor of the relay station—the same floor I’d been standing on while I tried to play God with a radio frequency—groaned like a dying whale. Then, it leaned thirty degrees to the left. For a heartbeat, my stomach stayed at the top of the tower while my boots began a desperate, screeching slide toward the edge of the platform. Below us, the quarry looked like a hungry black mouth, yawning wide, waiting for the punchline of a very long, very expensive, very bad joke.I slammed my shoulder against a support beam, the cold galvanized steel biting through my jacket. My fingers scrabbled for purchase, my nails digging into the grit on the metal. I looked at Marcus Stone. He was clinging to a control console with the desperation of a man who realized his golden parachute was made of lead. His knuckles were white, his eyes were dinner pla
AnyaThe backseat of the whistleblower’s beat-up sedan smelled like wet upholstery, old cigarettes, and a faint hint of peppermint that made my stomach turn. It was a real step down from the leather-scented luxury of a kidnapping vehicle, but I wasn't in a position to leave a bad review. My ankle was throbbing in three different time signatures, and my shoulder felt like it had been chewed on by a mountain lion. Every time we hit a bump, the pain flared up, bright and hot, reminding me that I was very much made of breakable parts."Can you drive any faster?" I hissed, clutching the thumb drive so hard the metal was starting to leave a permanent dent in my palm. "Or is this the scenic route where we wait for the helicopter to turn us into a roadside attraction? Because I’m not really in the mood for a tour."The man—I think his name was Miller, which was a very boring name for someone involved in a conspiracy—didn't look at me. He kept his eyes fixed on the narrow strip of road that wa
Anya’s povThe ballroom air felt like it was running out of oxygen. Every smile from a board member felt like a jagged edge, and every flash of a camera felt like an interrogation light. I walked back to Kai, my heart echoing the frantic rhythm of my father’s voice in the hallway.Kai reached for m
Anya’s povThe air in Nashville was a humid weight, smelling of old asphalt and fried grease, a far cry from the sterile chill of Chicago. We were whisked into a blacked-out suburban that smelled like industrial lemon cleaner, weaving through the neon-soaked chaos of Broadway toward the Hermitage H
Anya’s POVThe private jet was a sleek, silver bullet cutting through the clouds toward Chicago.Inside, the cabin was a masterclass in claustrophobic luxury, cream leather seats, polished walnut tables, and a silence so thick you could choke on it.Ethan was in the cockpit lounge, supposedly argui
Anya’s POVThe ballroom of the Peninsula was a funny shiny cage of crystal chandeliers and velvet drapery, but all I could smell was the ozone of a coming storm. The room was packed with journalists, their cameras perched like vultures on black tripods, lenses trained on the empty mahogany table a







