MarcusHerbert Lane looks like a man who’s been caught in a thunderstorm without an umbrella and never dried off. Even sitting in the Bureau’s borrowed conference room, he’s damp with sweat, his shirt sticking to his chest, hair plastered in uncertain directions.“I don’t know if I can do this,” he says for the fifth time, voice trembling. “She’ll kill me. You don’t understand-”“You’ve mentioned,” I cut in, keeping my tone flat. If I let his panic build, we’ll be here all night. “Your choices are pretty simple, Herbert. Prison. Or helping us make sure Elena goes down before she can touch you.”His eyes dart like a cornered animal’s, and I can practically hear the hamster wheel of fear squeaking in his brain. He’s not noble, never will be. But desperation is leverage.“Look,” I add, leaning forward, lowering my voice. “You know Elena. You know Bainbridge. You’re a loose end whether you help us or not. The only shot you have is making yourself more valuable to us than to them.”He swal
GillespieThe rented office is the kind of place you’d never look twice at from the street. It’s perfect exactly because it’s so unassuming.I’ve run meetings in war rooms with walls plastered in screens and the hum of a dozen analysts in the background. But sometimes the smartest play isn’t a glossy Bureau building with a badge at the door.It’s four stories up in a former insurance office with a flickering fluorescent light and a vending machine that hasn’t worked since the Obama administration.We’re six around the table. Me, two analysts, one surveillance lead, a junior agent typing as if her fingers might combust, and, because apparently my life is a constant exercise in patience, Marcus Blackwood.Technically, he’s not supposed to be here. But “technically” hasn’t gotten us within spitting distance of Elena Blackwood, and Marcus is the only one who can get close to her without rousing suspicion.I clear my throat, flicking through the file in front of me. “We all know why we’re
MarcusThe news hits before sunrise. One of Bainbridge’s record offices went up in smoke. Not a full building blaze, just a single storage unit, torched neat enough to look like bad wiring if you don’t know better. But Gillespie and I know. They’re scrubbing.I pace Jamie’s living room, phone clamped to my ear, listening to updates filter in. Each detail is a needle. Elena’s not slowing down. She’s accelerating, burning the trail behind her before the Bureau can catch up.Sophia watches from the couch, bundled in one of Jamie’s plaid blankets, eyes sharp despite the exhaustion lining her face. She doesn’t ask what Gillespie said. She reads it on me.“She’s destroying evidence.” Her voice is quiet but certain.I nod. “And planting stories. Whispers about me, about you. Nothing concrete yet, but she’s trying to spin this before the Bureau locks her in.”Jamie emerges from the kitchen with three mugs of tea and sets them down with a flourish that would almost be funny if my chest didn’t
SophiaThe wipers can’t keep up. Rain slashes sideways across the windshield, water hissing beneath the tires as I guide the car along the slick ribbon of asphalt. The headlights carve shaky cones through the storm, and I grip the wheel tighter, jaw set.It was supposed to be a simple run, with me leaving first and Marcus following later. A decoy, a routine shuffle to keep eyes off Marrin and confuse anyone watching. I insisted on it. I wanted to pull my weight, to prove I wasn’t the fragile one needing constant shadowing.But halfway down the stretch of highway, the brake pedal goes soft beneath my foot.I press harder, but nothing happens.Cold panic lances up my spine. The car doesn’t slow, doesn’t respond to my wishes. It just barrels forward as if mocking me.“Shit,” I hiss, my breath fogging the inside of the glass. I pump the brake, again, harder. Still nothing. The wheel jerks in my hands when water gathers beneath the tires. My pulse detonates in my ears.Someone cut my brake
MarcusWaking up feels like dragging myself through molasses, thick and clinging, every muscle heavy. The room smells like antiseptic and recycled air. A monitor ticks quietly to my left, its rhythm reminding me I’m alive. Barely, maybe, but alive.The agent in me kicks in before the man can. I catalog shallow breathing, nausea kept at bay by some IV drip, weakness in my legs, a chemical ache in my chest. Poison. Someone tampered with my drink. Not random. Intentional. The man, the one who doesn’t wear the Bureau’s badge like a second skin, remembers Sophia’s scream. The frantic way her hands pressed against me, like she could keep me tethered by sheer force of will. The look in her eyes when she thought she was losing me.I nearly left her alone in this mess. That thought punches harder than the poison ever did.Agent Gillespie arrives mid-morning, her shoes clicking briskly against the tile. She closes the door behind her, perches on the edge of the visitor’s chair, and studies me
ElenaThe thing about poison is that it’s clean. Efficient. No messy confrontation, no shouting matches, no bullets that leave holes in drywall. Just a sip, a swallow, and a body betrays itself.It should have been enough.But Marcus Blackwood is still alive, and that fact leaves a metallic taste in my mouth even the most expensive champagne can’t wash away.He was supposed to weaken, to wobble, to pull back from Sophia Chen the way a burned hand recoils from flame. Instead, I heard he’s resting in a hospital bed with her at his side, as though she’s the one who earned him, as though she’s the one who deserves to tuck herself under his arm.I smile as I step into the Platinum ballroom, mask firmly in place. The chandeliers catch the sequins on my dress, scattering light like a galaxy across polished marble floors.On the surface, I am every inch the co-owner. Poised, unshaken, a woman in command of her kingdom.Inside, I am seething.Who leaked Marrin’s whereabouts? Who dared let Marc