ouse was a ce
arble corridors like perfume. Strobe lights blazed the night as the polic
shed before the
hton stood alo
craper, city lights glimmeri
" Lucien asked, s
idn't
"I thought it would
ut
s like s
e her. "Survival is
o long. There was blood on the rim of his collar, a cut above his brow. But his eyes-his e
ara said. "But s
dded. "Sh
d E
wo
hy
"Because I offered him s
iffened. "What
d upward. "The sort
eated. "
he man you
"He's worse. But he
tened. "And now h
looked
ackmail
rot in a cell or get shot in an alleyway with a bullet to t
ve what?" sh
forward. "Me.
tood in
d and wal
r knew that Ezra d
s shaking voice, his confession, his broken appea
ir," she
ot attempt t
-
oon that the worl
ry Director Amara Leighton
ecret Role in Va
e Held in Custody-Awa
Every headline
Amara fel
inished their questions, she was still her-was sti
adn't returned to in months. Dust covered the counters. Liora's old
owly and spr
women with knife smiles, broken bodies tied in roses of chain. And in the center, a charco
and
lves o
oo brutal to
attered he
ed, held
stop
ine," Sabrina
-but Sabrina
to the wall, gun
pered. "We don't want to
t of custody,
na snapped, "I bough
oing to get a
d. "Darling. I
y, gun still level,
she said. "To tell you
not move
uation months ago. He groomed you, drew you in, pushed you j
's a
d the forgery? Who talked Ezra into following you? Who made sure you
s gut
this was
uldn'
telling me th
se I want to see him fall, and y
omething at
B dr
im. Surveillance video. Calls.
out of the room like
ra. Or he'll b
slammed b
went to
-
t when she ret
king whiskey, watching foo
the stillness. "Te
still and covetous. "T
the USB o
at it for
ed back in a
poke t
found
u trust
ur truth,"
w, the skyline bathing him
I did release the forgery. I did drive
en
knew that under the guilt and the darkness, there was a queen waiting to e
k. "That's not lov
t's obsession. And maybe I'm not the hero of this s
closer. "And what if I
garde
burn it a
silence be
turned an
crea
cry
h in he
n of truth
-
wo, then
d kept o
ara di
reading the files, cross-chec
at l
s all
trated, stage-managed S
Am
en the final
ned-performer,
e boardroom on the fifth nig
waited,
lost you,"
gned documents to
ed. "But you will-if yo
's eye
ents were
ship
tran
t co
w em
not on lies-
giving m
plied coldly.
r, a slow smile spre
e she
n a kiss that tasted
pulled back,
obsession an
ghtened arou
he said. "You