Aria’s hands shook on the steering wheel as Dante’s headlights grew closer in her rearview mirror. The rain pounded against the windshield like accusations, each drop echoing the doubts tearing through her heart. She had fled the warehouse with the folder of Project Pawn documents clutched in her lap, but the truth felt heavier than any physical weight. The man chasing her — the one who had held her through every nightmare, who had watched her rise with pride in his gray eyes — might have been planning her destruction from the very first night.
She pulled into an abandoned parking lot near the docks, the same area where her life as a waitress had once felt simple. Dante’s car screeched to a stop beside hers. He was out before the engine died, rain soaking his dark hair as he yanked open h
