Elena's POV
"I found it myself. Researching Victor."
The lie came out fast, half true and half not, and I watched Damian's expression war between suspicion and something closer to relief that I hadn't heard it from someone inside his world. "You found a private consultancy contracted through Victor's shell companies. On your own."
"I was worried about him. About what he might be planning." That much, at least, was entirely true. "I didn't know what I was looking at until I found the mission statement. Extraction and containment. Anomalous targets. I didn't understand it, not really, not until just now."
He studied me for a long moment, the car slowing as it turned onto a quieter street, and I could see him deciding whether to believe me, weighing it against everything else that had hap
