Ethan understands pressure, he thought. Ethan would never betray me.
What Damien didn’t know was that Luna had spent the night hiding in the alley behind VERTEX, burning with fever, listening to a conversation that nearly stopped her heart.
A storm days earlier had destroyed her cardboard shelter. Looking for somewhere dry, she slipped into the narrow, foul-smelling alley between the store and an office building. She curled behind a dumpster and tried to disappear.
Then two men arrived.
They didn’t see her.
One voice sliced through her like a knife—because she recognized it instantly.
Ethan’s voice.
The man who sometimes smiled at her. Who once gave her a dollar and told her to buy bread.
But now the voice was poisonous.
“Everything’s set,” Ethan said. “Accelerants are in the basement, wired to the main electrical system. Clean work.”
“You sure?” the other man asked. “Damien checks everything.”
Ethan laughed—ugly.
“He’s meticulous… but he trusts me. Tomorrow at nine he does his inspection. The irony? He’ll be inspecting his own grave.”
Luna’s blood turned to ice.
“And the insurance?” the other man asked.