Vitiel
d it into a tight square, and shoved it
ctor's dropped smartphone. My fingers were stead
onnected. Dante's voice came through,
tone so flat and calm it bordered on psych
letely. A second later, a loud crash echoed through the
staring blankly at the Director's bleeding neck. "But we both know the Syndicate
ropping into a lethal, panicked gr
o the Long Island estate. If I am not walking out of these doors in fifteen minutes, I
cond to bargain. I hit the re
ch coat the Director had practically begged me to take from his closet. The Syndicate guards stationed at the en
dillac SUV idled at th
froze. My parents were sitting in the back seat, their hands
d pressed myself into the furthest, darkest corn
ard Long Island. The air pressure inside the cabi
ached across the console, her trembling han
away with a vicious
red his throat, puffing out his chest to deliver the same tired,
mbling slightly. "Five years ago, the family was on the brink of civil war.
hands. "We agreed to the paperwork to protect t
of my throat. My eyes felt like razors as
You cared about your monthly stipends. You cared about your country club mem
ish. My mother went completely pale. They both sna
llo estate loomed in the darkness. The gates swung open, a
d. I had picked every stone, every plant. But as the hea
anted were gone. The garden had been ripped up an
he main house. The motion-sensor flood
ass and saw a woman standing a
r chin tilted up, looking down at the driveway
ted until my v
red in Paris a month before my crash. And wrapped around her wrist, catching the harsh security l
st my face, cutting through the oversized trench coat. I stepped
by a ghost in the middle of the nig
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