pte

al

, its steam mingling with the heavy June air. Her burner phone vibrated once more, but there was no voice,

n close enough to sneak it under her door. That wasn't carelessness. That conveyed a message. Elena knew operations. With a duffel bag and a fake passport, she would conduct extractions out of Eastern

ssed and looked at her body for any new bugs, bruises, or other thing

spered. "Everybody does." But it

viduals exhibited cracks. She required an inner person. a housekeeper a checkpoint. Or a gh

s did. Elena quickly changed into her sunglasses, hoodie, and burne

irst for her beauty and then for the sense that something about her was deliberately off-limits. She was 32 years old and had a dangerously poised posture. To most, she was the enchanting heiress of a vanished shipping fortune, a socialite whose presence turned charity galas into events of note. To a select

of deception are n

ish before the caviar was replaced with dessert. She was monitored, wired, and armed with a poison lipstick that only

ian

promise. The same eyes that she thought she had buried after Madrid, the same eyes that had once undressed her in a train car between Istanbul and Belgrade. They had been lovers-no, more than that. Julian was the only person who could see throug

layed something falsely romantic. Elena's smile remained

me," she replied coolly, accepting the glass. She experienced a flashback as their fingers brushed on her. She did

. Her target, Étienne Duval, was sipping single malt and laughing with two models half hi

invited riddle. A ghost with fles

ous, and she leant in slightly. "Are you he

he rim of his glass. "I'm here to stop

or just a moment. He still

how far gone s

vinced of his invincibility. Elena's lips brushed his cheek as she slipped the encr

g she was leading him

er handler when a low vibratio

ion. Duval is not the targ

he command was from Di

e cut in. It was disguised and distorted. "He's compromised. Someone's feeding information from the inside. Your co

ization slid

e by accident. He

only had twenty seconds to decide whether she wanted to finish the mission and risk everything or trust Julian and walk away. She selected neither. She wal

Julian caught up with her near the rose-lit fountain in the garden. Mo

you doing?"

ead in an hour if you leave with those keys. "You don't work for

tated. Just

." he sai

tsteps crunched in the gravel-security. Someone had noticed her hesitation. Duval's men were circl

e going to walk me out. You're going to smile. Additionall

, she smiled. "Then I tu

, neither of

g his arm through hers. "But

thing left after this." They walked toward the exit together-

me had

Moreau no longer reco