Chapter 1
Roman didn’t answer her immediately.
The SUV’s interior hummed with quiet movement, tires cutting through wet Chicago streets like the city itself was trying to forget what had just happened.
Ava watched him instead.
Roman Vale sat like the explosion hadn’t touched him—not the fire, not the smoke, not even the fact that someone had just tried to erase him from existence. Blood had dried at his lip. A faint bruise was forming along his jaw. Yet he looked more controlled than most men did in silence.
“Why didn’t you stop me?” Ava repeated when he still didn’t respond.
Roman finally turned his head.
“Because,” he said calmly, “I needed to know who was trying to use you.”
Her stomach tightened. “Use me?”
His gaze held hers like a locked door.
“You think you were investigating me,” he said. “You were being guided.”
Ava scoffed, but it came out weaker than she intended. “That’s convenient. Let me guess—you’re the victim in every scenario?”
A faint pause.
Then Roman leaned back slightly. “I’m the target in most of them.”
That shut her up for half a second.
Outside, neon reflections slid across the tinted glass. The city looked normal. Alive. Unbothered.
Inside the SUV, nothing felt normal at all.
Ava crossed her arms. “If you knew about me for three months, why let me get close enough to your operations to gather anything?”
Roman’s eyes flicked to her mouth for the briefest moment—so quick she almost missed it.
“Because you weren’t gathering anything,” he said. “You were being fed what someone wanted you to see.”
A beat.
Then, quieter: “And I wanted to know who had enough access to shape your investigation.”
Ava’s pulse ticked harder.
“That’s insane.”
“It’s accurate,” he corrected.
The SUV slowed.
Ava glanced out the window and realized they were not heading toward any police station, hospital, or public place.
They were entering a private compound tucked behind steel gates and industrial buildings near the river.
“Where are you taking me?” she demanded.
Roman didn’t look at her. “Somewhere you don’t get killed for asking questions.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is if you want to stay alive.”
May you like
The gates opened.
And the SUV rolled inside.
