Valentina’s POV
The ledger was gone. Just like that. A phantom in the night, stolen while I slept, or while I thought I slept. My pulse hadn’t settled from the warehouse fires, and now this.
Isabella’s voice over the phone hadn’t wavered, but her words were enough to make the world tilt on its axis.
“…Sophia,” she had said.
My stomach sank. Betrayal tastes different when it comes from someone you’ve trusted. It’s colder than any gunmetal, sharper than any dagger.
I didn’t speak immediately. I just gripped the receiver, my knuckles pale. Smoke still clung to my clothes from the raid. The city smelled like iron, fire, and blood.
“Get everyone on high alert,” I said at last, my voice low, calm, but ice beneath the words.
“I want every exit watched. Every alley checked. Every phone ta
