Chapter 3

I stayed at Hector's compound for three days.

I didn't do anything during those three days. I just ate, slept, and let my body recover.

Hector didn't bother me either. He gave me space and treated me with respect.

On the fourth day, Felix came back with the latest intel.

"Madam, we intercepted an encrypted exchange between Zane and Roxie."

He handed me a tablet. On the screen was the decrypted transcript.

I skimmed through it fast, and with every line, I felt something inside me sink a little deeper.

Zane: Vivian might not be dead. Nothing's come out of Hector's side.

Roxie: She has to die. She knows too much. A living Mockingbird is a massive liability for us.

Zane: I know. But I didn't think you'd actually go through with meeting Victor's people just to make my Plan B look convincing. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?

Roxie: If it means getting rid of her and having you back — it was worth every risk.

I couldn't read any further.

So even the so-called "cover blown" had been Roxie's own doing — a scheme she'd staged herself.

And Zane — my lover, my partner — hadn't just known about it. He'd been part of it.

What chilled me even more was the conversation that came next.

Zane: "I've already reported to the higher-ups that Vivian leaked part of the operation route during the mission to capture Hector, which caused the mission to fail. Now everyone inside the organization believes she's a traitor."

Roxie: "So when is she going to die?"

Zane: "I've already arranged it. I tipped off Victor's people in advance about one of the possible routes Vivian might take during the capture operation. If Hector doesn't kill her, Victor's people will."

So that rainy night — those cold shots that nearly took my life — they weren't an accident.

They were a trap. Set by the man I loved, with his own hands.

He didn't abandon me.

He wanted me dead.

I switched off the tablet and handed it back to Felix, my face completely blank.

"Thank you."

"Madam, are you…" Felix looked at me, stopping himself before he could finish.

"I'm fine." I forced the corners of my mouth into something that wasn't quite a smile. "I just want to kill a few people."

My existence had become a threat they couldn't ignore.

They would stop at nothing to get rid of me.

And I couldn't just sit here and wait to die.

I went to find Hector.

He was cleaning his gold-plated AK when I walked in. He didn't look surprised to see me.

"Come to a decision?" he asked.

"I want to know what Victor's been up to lately." I got straight to the point.

Hector paused what he was doing and looked up at me.

"He's been swallowing up several of our operations, and he cut into one of our supply lines with the South American buyers. What — you thinking about going after him?"

"Know your enemy, and you'll never lose a battle," I said.

Hector smiled.

"I like the way you think. Alright — whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."

"I want to know what kind of connection he has with The Apex."

Hector's expression shifted.

"You think Victor has someone inside your organization?"

"Not think," I said, holding his gaze, each word deliberate. "I know."

The fact that Zane could so easily leak my operation route to Victor meant the two of them had already built a secret line of communication long before any of this.

And Roxie — walking straight into Victor's territory, getting into "danger," and then slipping out completely "unharmed"? That was no coincidence.

There was something much bigger buried underneath all of this.

And I was right in the middle of it — a pawn they could sacrifice whenever it suited them.