His Stolen Kiss, Her Lethal Cure

by the time Elia reach

ind wrought-iron gates. It reeked of old mo

steps. Her cheap sneakers left mudd

d the bras

d uniform looked at her. His eyes dropped to her soaked canvas bag,

"Deliveries go to

ak. She simply

e back. She walked straight into the grand foyer, the crystal

butler gasped,

aking tha

oice echoed from

taircase and stepped onto the p

eacup paused halfway to her lips. She wore a silk

ror. She looked at the dark, muddy water see

the glass table. "Do you have any idea how muc

ded lightly d

ne pink ballet leotard, her hair pulled back in

ked over, keeping a safe distance from Elia's wet clothes. "She grew up in the rust

ia a sympatheti

nge. She didn't look at the

ad center int

Her voice was flat, carrying t

ing ignored. She stood up, pointing a man

the left. And don't you dare touch

ed and wa

he last door

bed sat against the wall. There were no decorations, no welcoming t

k of the lock severed the soun

t canvas bag onto

et clothes. The cold clinging

, matte-black laptop. It looked heavy, enca

n the floor, resting th

ed the sc

Apple icon. Just a black scree

rs hit th

s blur of plastic clicks. Green code cascaded

ernational firewalls i

red the

t, most heavily encrypted

owed in the top

typed in the unique, fourteen-digit serial num

hit

. Data packets fle

r, a red ping app

e pumping massive amounts of untraceable offshore funds into the blac

aced th

d the proxy servers. She dug through layers of corpora

on of the funds app

f G

photo loaded next

red at t

man from

hable CEO of Wall Street's most

s sharp and dangerous. But Elia remembered the feel

siren blared from

en flash

CTED. REVERSE

m had noticed her digging. They were

d, humorless smile touche

the keys. She didn't pan

ers in Russia, China, and Brazil. She watched the Wolf

id somethin

oscopic crack in her

data slip through, carryi

hat

bbed the tag, Elia

ck. The connection

eat from the battery burned

He was using her neck

him

ps pounded do

led, then the doo

face set in a hard, uncompromising scowl. He didn't look at Elia like

a folder onto the

w," Gorge said, his voice

go of a rundown, underfunded public sc

d back up

dered, turning to leave.