Chapter 7: Sweet, Sweet Lies
627 Words
I never thought I’d be fake-laughing next to my best friend while secretly plotting to expose her spy-a** ways—but hey, first time for everything, right?
“Did you finish the bio homework?” Zoe asked as we walked to class, sipping her overpriced iced coffee like she wasn’t a whole undercover operative.
“Yeah,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Totally.”
Spoiler: I hadn’t touched it. I’d been too busy going full FBI in my room last night.
Zoe kept talking, but my brain was buffering. I couldn't stop hearing her voice from the flash drive:
> “She doesn’t suspect a thing.”
She was right. Until now.
I slid into my seat and acted chill, even though my palms were sweating and my heart was like, fight or flight? Maybe both? Damien hadn’t texted me since last night, which was low-key annoying. Dude drops a bomb and then goes full ghost mode? Rude.
Meanwhile, Zoe leaned over during class and whispered, “Wanna come over later? We could watch that dumb show you like.”
She meant Dead Hearts Academy, my comfort show full of hot vampires and zero emotional stability.
“Sure,” I said, smiling like I wasn’t planning to search her whole damn house while she was in the bathroom.
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Fast-forward: I’m in her room, sitting on her bed, pretending to scroll through t****k while she microwaved popcorn.
Her laptop was on her desk. Unlocked.
Game time.
I slipped across the room, heart in my throat, and opened the screen. No password. She really thought I was that dumb.
I searched “Echo.” Nothing.
Then I checked her hidden folders.
Boom.
One labeled “Cloud Backup - Project Luna”.
Oh hell no—another project?
I clicked it, and suddenly I was staring at videos again. Not of me this time… but of Damien.
CCTV footage of him fighting off three armed men in a parking garage. Photos of him bleeding, barely standing. A file labeled “Kill Order: Damien Monteverde – Status: Suspended.”
Suspended?
I didn’t get a chance to open more because—
“Whatcha doing?”
I nearly yeeted the laptop across the room.
Zoe stood in the doorway, popcorn in hand, smiling like she hadn’t just caught me red-handed.
My heart nose-dived into panic.
“Oh—I was just, uh, checking my email,” I stammered, trying to close the tab.
She walked over slowly. Too slowly.
“On my laptop?”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
I laughed nervously. “Yeah, mine died. Totally dead. Like, full funeral situation.”
She set the popcorn down, her smile now... off. Too calm. Too practiced.
“You know,” she said, sitting next to me, “you’ve been acting kinda weird lately.”
“Says the girl who talks to dudes in wolf masks.”
Silence.
That wiped the smile off her face.
“You saw the drive,” she said flatly.
“Yup,” I replied. “Surprise.”
Zoe’s whole vibe shifted. Her expression hardened, her voice dropped.
“You have no idea what you’re in the middle of, Lexi.”
“Then explain it to me.”
She leaned closer. “They’re coming for you. With or without me.”
“Who are they?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” she whispered. “But if you want to survive this, you need to trust me. Not him.”
“Why would I trust you?” I spat. “You lied to me. Watched me. Used me.”
Zoe’s eyes gleamed. “Because Damien’s not the hero you think he is.”
And with that, she stood up, walked out, and slammed the door behind her.
- Writer
