Point

ver my eyes, as my heart beat ominously loud and oppressively even against a rhythm I didn't believe in. The silence weighed heav

till gathered dust there. My face, my hair, the c

R MORE THAN

ed his memory of me there sleeping, and hated the small hidden part of me that consider

aptain Elena Monroe. For all the years I'd crawled through muck and lies, dragging one criminal after anothe

at happened

g to bring

buzzed against my leg. I sat bolt upright, puzzled

wn Nu

out Castellano. We hav

heart racing. No signature.

a moment chewing th

the faint squeak of her mattress. I should have woken her up. Warned her

anything or anyone screwing it up. A

te qu

e

he

conds was

wn Nu

et. Tissue aisl

and boots, paired with a bland jacket. I cinched my badge around my neck and tu

g heavy over the buildings. Long Beach was subdued, as if t

ery carts, kids whining about cereal, old folks quibbling about milk brands in fro

en I s

tal shelf covered in paper towels and napkins, his hood up, h

round the cart I'd g

he said, not look

here," I said to him; my flat tone was p

ow and rough. "There's a shipment. Illegal. Coming in to

es. "What's the

e. Military grade. En

ipped a bea

for me to see his whole face, only

is evening. Castellano's going to be there-speakinh a

e's Ba

cou

the name brought and focused

ould you k

nswers to. Trust me that if you hit him there tonight you'll

y, but I wasn't finish

he muttered without glancing ba

ared down the next

kind of lead we had been searching for months-years-now. Dom had evaded us so many times I had lost

ride hastening, heart

ffice of the Captain. Adrenaline bore me a

erusing some papers with his usual scowl face

g down the file. "You don

ing the door behind me. "I got a tip,

s I'll go along with my pr

evening. Eleven.

back into his chair. "And ar

t quiet last week. He's unloading something big tonight

market?" Reiner asked, his d

want to be tracked. He wore his face. Spok

operation. Warrant support. Surveillance. Deployment of the whole team-a

t's a risk. But it's Dominic Castellano. If I'm wrong, we pull b

e for a long m

dded once.

ght. "You'll

long," Reiner said. "If we have a shot

s,

eways-I'm holding

d. "Und

lready gathering. Michael. Mia. Jeremy. The rest of our u

adrenaline humm

id to them, "we

ime, I was