Gwendolyn Preston stood by the window, watching the tail lights of Ambrose Ward’s sedan disappear into the grey, rain-shrouded labyrinth of Stonebridge. In her heart, a single, flickering flame of hope remained. She had grown up in a world where smiles were weapons and kindness was a currency used to buy silence. Was Ambrose truly the protector he claimed to be, or was he merely a more sophisticated predator, a man who had mastered the art of "saving" her only to harvest the secrets she carried?
She didn't have an answer. All she had was a three-thousand-dollar balance on her phone and the name of Darren Drake—the man she had just thrown to the wolves.
Thirty minutes later, the Joint Investigation Task Force was fully assembled at the north gate of the Harborside Compound. The air was th
