Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
The word hits the room like a gunshot. River gasps softly. Lark’s eyes widen. Knight’s jaw clenches. Gage’s face hardens. Juno stares at Dean like he must be wrong. Ozzy doesn’t move at first. He just stares at Dean, eyes sharp and disbelieving.
“That’s not possible,” Ozzy says, voice low and dangerous.
Rae swallows. “It’s his.”
Ozzy shakes his head once. “No. Poe doesn’t betray us.”
Dean’s voice stays calm. “I don’t want to believe it either. But the signature is consistent with previous work tied to his accounts.”
Ozzy’s hands curl into fists. “Accounts can be copied.”
“They can,” Rae agrees, but her eyes look miserable. “Not easily. Not without access. Not without knowing his style.” She sighs. “And… where is he?”
My heart pounds so hard it hurts. I look at Ozzy, watching his face fracture in real time. Rage and denial and fear all fighting to be the one in control.
Sawyer speaks then, voice clipped. “I just called the hospital.”
The room goes still again.
“What?” Arrow asks.
Sawyer’s expression hardens. “Salem’s father is missing.”
My breath leaves my body in a sharp rush. “No,” I whisper, the word thin.
Sawyer’s gaze flicks to me. “During the commotion, during shift change, he was moved.”
“Moved where,” I ask, my voice rising.
“They don’t know,” Sawyer replies. “He is not in the room. They have no record of where he went.”
My stomach twists hard. My father was fragile. Injured. Guarded. Someone took him anyway. Someone who knew he mattered. Someone who knew we would come back for answers.
“Camera footage shows a man in a hoodie. Might be Poe. Might not,” Sawyer says.
Ozzy’s face turns savage. “Poe?”
Dean’s eyes narrow. “We tried calling him.” He pulls his phone out, thumb moving quickly. “It went to voicemail. Then this came in.” Dean sets the phone on the table and slides it toward Ozzy.
Ozzy grabs it.
I lean closer, my breath catching.
A single text message. Just words that make my blood freeze.
Stop digging. You already have the girl. Be grateful.
Underneath it is a photo.
A blurry image taken from somewhere above. A hallway. A hospital corridor. A gurney being pushed. My father’s face visible for half a second, bruised and pale. A hand in the corner of the frame. Wearing a ring. The kind of ring you would only notice if you were looking for it.
Ozzy’s face goes white-hot with fury. “That’s him,” he whispers.
My throat closes. “Poe took my father?”
Dean’s voice is quiet and heavy. “It appears that way.”
Juno’s hand flies to her mouth. Arrow’s eyes turn hard. Gage looks like he wants to flip the table. River’s face crumples with horror.
And Ozzy slams the phone down so hard it rattles the laptops. “No,” he says, voice shaking now with something raw. “No. That’s not Poe. Poe would never—” His words break off.
Dean speaks with the kind of calm that scares me more than yelling. “We treat Poe as compromised. We locate him. We do it fast.”
Ozzy’s eyes are glassy. “You’re saying he’s the mole.”
Dean holds his gaze. “I’m saying everything points to him.”
Ozzy turns his head, like he’s searching the room for someone to argue with. For someone to tell him this is a mistake.
Nobody does.
Rae’s eyes drop to her keyboard. Sawyer’s jaw tightens. Arrow looks like a man ready to go to war. Juno grips his arm. Lark’s hand curls into a fist. Knight shifts closer to her. River squeezes Gage’s hand.
My chest feels hollow. The worst part is that I barely know Poe, yet I can already feel how much Ozzy does. How much losing trust in him costs.
“How?” Ozzy whispers, voice rough. “Why?”
Dean’s gaze flicks toward me. “Salem’s father said Serafina is closer than we think. Poe being the mole would fit that warning.”
My stomach twists. Closer than we think. Closer means inside. Inside means family.
Dean looks at Sawyer. “Lock down. Rotate codes. Physical checks. Nobody moves alone.”
Sawyer nods. “Already in motion.”
Arrow’s voice comes out low and lethal. “We find him.”
Dean nods once. “We will.”
Ozzy stands so fast his chair scrapes. “I’m going.”
Dean’s eyes sharpen. “You’re not going alone.”
Ozzy’s gaze flicks to me, and something soft breaks through the fury. He reaches for my hand, squeezing hard. “I’m not leaving her.”
Dean’s face softens a fraction. “You’re not. You’re taking her somewhere safer. Then you come back and we hunt.”
My stomach tightens. “I want to help.”
Ozzy’s thumb strokes my knuckles. “Not tonight.”
I hate that my eyes burn, but I nod because I can feel how close he is to snapping. If I fight him right now, he’ll break.
The meeting fractures into motion. People moving, voices low, plans being formed in clipped sentences. I catch words like perimeter, traffic cams, burner channels, dead drops, safehouse rotation.
Poe’s name keeps repeating like a wound.
I let Ozzy guide me out of the Aquarium. He walks fast, his body vibrating with anger. We pass through corridors and doors and into the parking lot where the air’s cold and sharp.