57

Sierra's POV

The name felt like a punch.

"Miranda."

Derek whispered it, then looked at the floor like he was ashamed.

Louis didn't move. But I felt him get really still next to me. Like a statue.

"Miranda who?" Louis's voice was quiet. Too quiet.

"Miranda Vale," Derek said.

I knew that name. She was on the news a lot. She had a big talk show where she yelled at politicians. She wrote books about powerful men who did bad things. She hated people like Louis.

"But… why?" I asked. "Why would she care about us?"

Derek looked up. He had tears in his eyes now. "She's been digging into Victor for months. For a story. She thought his story proved how guys like… like your husband… ruin people. She found me. She paid me to get close, to find dirt. The picture leak, the bug… it was all to make you scared. To make you slip up and give her a real story."

Louis let out a slow breath. It wasn't a sigh. It was like a tiger getting ready to pounce.

"So this was never about revenge," Louis said. "This was for ratings."

"Sort of," Derek mumbled. "She thinks it's for justice. She thinks you're a monster. She wants to prove it."

I felt sick. All this fear, all this danger… for a TV show? For a book?

"What about the singing?" My voice cracked. "In Katie's room. That was for justice too?"

Derek looked confused. "The… singing? I don't know anything about singing. I just planted the bug and took the pictures she asked for."

Louis and I looked at each other. Derek seemed too scared to lie now.

If Derek didn't do the creepy singing… then who did?

"So Miranda Vale has the pictures. She has audio from our house. What is she going to do with it?" Louis asked.

"She's writing a special. A big exposé. 'The Real Cost of a Crowe Fortune.' She's going to air it in two weeks," Derek said. "She thinks the bug will give her, like, a 'behind-the-scenes' look at your 'corrupt world.'"

This was a nightmare. A different kind of nightmare. Not a man with a gun, but a lady with a camera and a microphone. You can't stop a story with a security guard.

Louis nodded like he understood everything. He looked at Martin. "Take him to the holding room. Keep him comfortable, but no phone. No talking to anyone."

Martin nodded and led Derek away.

We were alone in the cold white room.

"Sierra," Louis said.

"I know." I hugged myself. "This is bad."

"It's a different kind of war," he said. He started pacing. "We can't scare her off. We can't buy her off. She wants a fight. She wants the spotlight."

"So what do we do? Hide?"

"No." He stopped. A weird light was in his eyes. It was the same look he got when he talked about a big business deal. "We give her a story."

"What? Are you crazy? She wants to destroy you!"

"She wants to destroy a *version* of me. The monster in her head. So we show her a different version. We don't hide. We invite her in."

I stared at him. My heart was racing. "You want to talk to her? On her show?"

"I want to control the story. If she's going to do it anyway, we do it on our terms. We give her access. To the foundation. To the rebuilding. To *us*."

"To *us*? Louis, we're not… we're not a normal couple. We're a mess."

"We're a partnership," he said firmly. "That's our story. It's the truth. It's better than her version."

He walked over to me. "We show her a family that got attacked and is fighting back together. We show her Katie's resilience. We show her the work we do. We take her weapon and we turn it into… a shield."

It was the craziest idea I ever heard. Letting the wolf into the house.

"But what about the other thing? The singing? If it wasn't Derek, and it wasn't Miranda… who was it?"

The light in his eyes dimmed. That was the real mystery. The real threat.

"One enemy at a time," he said quietly. "First, we handle Miranda. We turn her from a hunter into a… guest. Then we find the singer."

He took my hand. His was warm. "Are you with me? We have to do this together. It only works if we're both in."

I thought about Katie. I thought about the singing in the dark. I thought about a lady on TV trying to tell the world who we were.

I didn't want to do it. I wanted to hide.

But hiding didn't work anymore.

I squeezed his hand.

"Okay," I said. "We're partners. We do it together."

We were going to walk right into the lion's den. And we were going to smile.