the metal tip pressed hard against his wi

d of glass from the shattered headlight near her

d, her voice soft as velv

ling. "She contacted us on an encrypted app! Paid double! Said your name was Aurora, sa

v

pocket, dialed 911, reported a gang fight in a flat

eel hard, and slammed her foot on the gas. She

was blazing with lig

air was wild from the wind. There was a smear of dark bl

heavy double doors

nor, her biological mother, sat trembling with anger in her armchair; Julian and Spencer, her two older brothers, stood like watchful sentrie

all sat Ivy, sobbing softl

d from them like heat from an oven. Not one of them asked why

the nerve to show your face back here?! Look at what you poste

llin's arm. "Please... don't be angry, sister..." s

gnored t

ho had never held her, the brothers who chose an orphan over their own b

d walking tow

r path. "What do you think you're doing?" her youngest brother sn

w down. She didn'

edirected his momentum in one fluid, military-grade movement. Cole stumbled sideways

eact, Aurora was stan

od on Aurora's sleeve, the torn gown, and the terrifying calm on her face. Ivy

raised

ross Ivy's face with every o

AC

hoed through the r

t bloomed across her porcelain skin, and a dark tr

upted into

gical father, roared in a vo

his chest. "Are you insane?!" he spat, his face twiste

s wild with fury. "Apologize!" Spencer yelle

, her brothers, her ex-fiancé-all converging on

tive rage with a col

ce cutting through their screamin

you hired to jump me