ling security guards. She flattened herself into a recessed doorway as two of them passed, their conver

he soles of her bare feet. She found what she was loo

She located the main satellite communications hub and, using a spare data cable

e knew well. A simple, text-based chat room appeared. She typed a sequence of chara

ter, a new line

chet

lew across the v

Kassidy Graham. All accounts, hid

her life, the one that had nothing to do with state universities or family dinners. T

het:

h, pressing herself against a humming server rack. A guard pushed the door open a few inches, his flashlight beam c

didn't realize she'd been

an. But I found something else in her p

rypted file appea

What

it. Folder name

rking silently in the background. A password prompt appeared. She typed i

licke

ssidy was in the frame, laughing, wearing nothing but a silk robe. She was straddling a man, her back

ed, his face comi

the humming of the servers fading to a distant roar. I

ipping with a casual cruelty that stole the air from her lungs. He k

ation of shock and revulsion. The betrayal from her father and stepsi

the world. Her family and her partn

ing void. She hugged the tablet to her chest, the chill of the server room seeping into he

gone. In her place was a predator. Evan's betrayal hadn't just broken her heart; it had severed the last anc

om the docks. This double-barreled shotgun of betrayal was more

er way up the winding crew staircase, bypassing the main corridors, moving with a newfound purpos

s she approached, a heavy, muffled thud came from

al and unexpected, sh

shed from her mind. Acting on pure

near the floor-to-ceiling windows. And sprawled in

a deep gash from a sharp shard of glass. Blood, dark and terrifyingly fast, was pum