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brIGHT AND EARLY the next morning, Ruby stepped into the hotel lobby, where Kavya and Jonah were already waiting.

The space hummed with quiet morning energy—guests murmured over steaming cups of coffee, the scent of roasted beans and pastry clinging to the air.

A bellhop maneuvered a luggage cart across the polished tile, wheels clicking rhythmically.

Jonah looked like hell. His dirty blonde hair was scraped back into a messy bun, and sunglasses did little to hide the shadows under his eyes. His wrinkled t-shirt and the slouch in his posture made him look like he’d either just rolled out of bed or barely slept at all.

Ruby glanced down at his feet and snorted. “Does he know he’s wearing two different shoes?” she asked Kavya.

Jonah sighed. “He does.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And you know you’ll be on camera today, right?”

“I didn’t notice until we were already in town, and Kavya wouldn’t let me stop to grab a new pair.”

Kavya shrugged. “We’re on a tighter schedule today. Trying something new, film-wise.” She turned on her heel, heading toward the hotel café. “That being said, I’m grabbing coffee. Jonah, brief Ruby on the mission. If you two don’t bicker, I’ll buy you a coffee and let you stop at Foot Locker.”

“You heard the woman.” Ruby dropped into one of the leather armchairs with a quiet squelch. “Brief me.”

Jonah lowered himself into the neighboring chair, folding his arms. “I will. But first, I want to talk about last night.”

Ruby stilled. She hadn’t expected that.

“Really?” She tilted her head, studying him. “I assumed you were going to yet again ‘not remember’ our conversation.” The finger quotes were unnecessary but satisfying.

Jonah exhaled, rubbing a hand over his face. “No. Pretending to forget you was childish. And I know you never believed me, so I don’t even know why I tried.” He hesitated, fingers tapping against the armrest. “There are things you don’t know yet. It’s complicated.”

She frowned, taking in the way his shoulders slumped, his left knee bouncing.

The lobby bustled around them—business travelers scrolling through phones, an older couple debating their itinerary, the distant ding of the elevator.

She had the sudden, ridiculous urge to lean in, to press him for more, but before she could—

Kavya returned, balancing two coffees. “What’d I miss?”

“Jonah being super vague and annoying.” Ruby stood, brushing invisible lint from her pants. “Shocking, I know. Who’s our next target?”

Kavya’s grin was slow, wicked. “I hope you’re not afraid of needles.”

IN AN OVERLY delicate living room, Ruby, Kavya, and Jonah sat sipping coffee while waiting for a fugitive to return from the post office.

Their target’s mother, Mrs. Ulerik, perched beside Ruby on a pink, frilly couch.

Her salt-and-pepper hair was pulled into a neat bun, and laugh lines creased deeply into her sun-kissed skin.

Ruby leaned into a cross-stitched pillow that read “Teachers Are the Real Heroes.” The faint scent of lavender essential oils hung in the air.

Jonah and Kavya sat across from them in armchairs upholstered in pastel florals. Kavya streamed live from their social media account, her camera trained on the surroundings, while Jonah idly played with a cross-stitched pillow in his lap.

When they arrived, Mrs. Ulerik had ushered them into the living room, demanding they sit for a cup of tea while they waited for her son.

A porcelain teapot, adorned with tiny roses, sat on the coffee table between them.

Steam curled from the spout. Ruby lifted a cup shaped like a frog and pretended to sip.

The tea had an unusual floral scent, delicate yet fresh, with a sweet undertone.

Jonah had opted for a fresh cup of coffee, while Kavya had politely declined both.

The living room could have been charming, with its mix of plush fabrics, pastels, and floral prints.

Family portraits lined the walls, featuring a younger Mrs. Ulerik surrounded by high school students.

It was all very homey—except for the wall behind Ruby, where rows of antique medical instruments were on display.

A rusty saw, giant scissors, and a collection of needles sat in various states of decay, casting a disturbing shadow over the otherwise cozy room.

Mrs. Ulerik broke the silence, her voice dripping with motherly concern. “He’s only going to be in prison for a few years, dear. You’re a beautiful young woman—maybe you could wait for him?” Her eyes roamed over Ruby, adjusting the shawl draped over her shoulders.

Ruby blinked, momentarily thrown. “Wait for—?”

“For Manny, of course.” Mrs. Ulerik coaxed. She set her tea, untouched, down on the table. “You’re not getting any younger, sweetheart, and it’s difficult to meet someone with a life like yours. Manny understands how hard that is. He’s been all over the country.”

Jonah snorted into his coffee and Mrs. Ulerik shot him a nasty look. “My apologies Mrs. Ulerik. You’re absolutely right. No one would know the struggles of traveling for work better than a drug trafficker.”

Mrs. Ulerik waved a dismissive hand, ignoring the jab entirely. “Anyway, I saw your video. Manny appreciates a strong woman. He’ll need someone like you to keep him in line.”

Ruby forced a smile and tried not to roll her eyes. Thanks to Kavya, a clip of her kicking over Blakely’s fence had made her an overnight social media sensation.

Jonah turned to Ruby. “Sounds like you’ve got options. He’s only a short stint away from being a free man.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m not really looking for a relationship right now.” She pretended from her frog cup. “I had a really messy breakup. Trying to focus on healing before jumping into anything new.”

Mrs. Ulerik patted Ruby’s hand with a knowing look. “Oh, honey, you know what they say—the best way to get over someone is to get under—”

Ruby cut her off, her cheeks heating. “So... any idea when Manny will be home?”

She wasn’t a prude, but she wasn’t sure she could handle having a sex talk with a felon’s mom while on camera.

Things were a lot less conservative than when she was a human, but she also hadn’t had sex since then.

Her job left little space to venture out.

She sipped from the tea, flustered and forgetting for a moment that she shouldn’t.

The hot liquid pooled in her cheeks and she fought her gag reflex back from swallowing.

The older woman adjusted her shawl, tugging it over her shoulders. As she looked away, Ruby let the liquid dribble down her chin and back into the cup. “Any minute now. The post office is only a few blocks away.”

A dull thump echoed through the house, cutting through the conversation. Everyone paused and looked up to the ceiling.

“Anyone else in the house?” Jonah set down his drink and stood.

“Of course not,” Mrs. Ulerik said. The lenses of her glasses glinted in the soft light from a nearby lamp, making it difficult to tell where she was looking.

Another thud. This time followed by a quiet but distinct, “Shit.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow, her tone skeptical. “So that would be...?”

Mrs. Ulerik didn’t flinch. “Ghost.” She shrugged. “These old houses are always haunted.”

Someone stumbled down the stairs, each step growing faster, more panicked.

Jonah launched to his feet, spinning toward the noise. The figure coming down the stairs burst into view—gun first. The man was wild-eyed, his movements jerky as he waved the weapon around.

Jonah shifted his body, placing himself between the barrel of the gun and Kavya.

His hands raised slowly, palms out. The man—a scruffy, sleep-disheveled Manny—was smaller than the file had said.

If he wasn’t pointing a gun at her partner, Ruby might have made a joke about it.

Hell, she still might. He was almost a foot shorter than Jonah, probably around 5’5, his Patriots T-shirt hanging loosely over his wiry frame.

His forearm sported a faded, tacky heart-shaped tattoo with the word “Mom” in the center.

Kavya angled the camera toward Ruby, set it on the table, and also raised her hands.

“Get the hell out of my house.” Manny swung the gun between the three of them, his hand trembling.

“Manny, right?” Jonah pulled Manny’s focus toward him.

Manny stepped forward, pressing the barrel against Jonah’s forehead. Ruby opened her mouth in protest. Jonah shook his head, just barely, and she remained silent.

“Who’d you tell?” Manny’s knuckles whitened around the gun’s grip. “The cops? Are they on the way?”

From behind them, Mrs. Ulerik sighed, not at all concerned by the weapon pointed at her guest’s face. “I don’t think they told anyone, dear. If you had read my text and gone out the back way like I suggested, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Sorry, Mom,” Manny muttered, never breaking eye contact with Jonah. “Didn’t see your text until after I fell out of bed.”

That explained the first thud.

Mrs. Ulerik slipped the shawl from her shoulders, revealing surprisingly toned arms for a woman her age. She moved with a practiced grace, coming to stand behind Ruby. “It’s fine, sweetheart. We’ll take care of them.”

The ominous click of a gun being cocked snapped Ruby’s focus back to Manny. She bent her knees, ready to lunge—then pain knifed through her side.

She looked down. An antique syringe jutted from her ribs, its glass tube still intact, but the metal handle was corroded, stained a molten brown.

Her body reacted instantly, skin and tissue trying to knit around the intrusion.

The sensation was like a thousand tiny blades slicing her open, over and over.

Nothing had been injected, but the needle had slipped between her ribs, puncturing her lung.

A sharp burn raced up her spine. Then came the dizziness—violent, disorienting—tilting the world off its axis.

Gravity seized her, doubling its grip. Her limbs turned leaden. Panic clawed at her chest, each breath a ragged, tearing gasp. Darkness bled into the edges of her vision. With every heartbeat, something deeper spread—venom or pain, she couldn’t tell—slowing her thoughts, dragging her down.

She staggered. Then crumpled.

Jonah and Kavya both called out for her, but Mrs. Ulerik only laughed.

“Oh, don’t worry about her.” She clucked her tongue. “I put a pretty heavy dose of lily of the valley in her tea. She’s halfway to the stars.”

Ruby crawled on her hands and knees toward the coffee table, her chest rattling with each shallow breath.

She couldn’t focus on the chaos overhead, only on staying awake long enough to heal.

Flipping onto her back beneath the table, she squeezed her eyes shut and groped for the needle embedded in her side.

The sharp tang of blood filled her mouth as she bit her tongue, using the pain to stay conscious. She yanked the syringe out with a quick pull and let it drop onto the carpet. A wave of nausea hit. She rolled to her side, vomiting yellow liquid onto the pristine white carpet.

Above her, Jonah argued with Manny while Kavya mocked Mrs. Ulerik.

“You’d be a lot more threatening without the orthopedic shoes.”

Ruby pushed herself back to her stomach, dragging her body across the unsoiled carpet toward the edge of the couch.

Mrs. Ulerik had pinned Kavya against the door, pressing a rusted surgical saw to her throat. Manny still aimed the gun at Jonah, but somehow they had switched positions—Jonah now faced the living room, while Manny stood facing the kitchen and the front door.

“No one knows we’re here,” Jonah bargained. “You can still let us go.”

Manny shook the gun. “You think I’m stupid? You’ll call the cops the second we’re out of here. I ain’t gonna let anything happen to my momma.”

Jonah frowned. “To your mom?”

“Manny,” Mrs. Ulerik warned, not taking her eyes off Kavya.

Manny snorted. “Don’t play dumb. How d’ya think the kids got the drugs?”

“I wish you wouldn’t talk like some second-rate thug,” Mrs. Ulerik sighed. “You grew up in Tribeca, for goodness sake.”

Kavya laughed in the older woman’s face. “New York to small-town drug dealing is quite a shift.”

Mrs. Ulerik’s lips tightened. “My ex-husband was a terrible financial adviser. Wouldn’t take my advice, despite my University of Phoenix degree, and he graduated from a community college, for goodness sake.

He shorted a stock, got arrested, and left me with his debts.

So, I found a market here—and I invested.

” She adjusted her grip on the saw. “I would’ve let you leave, but thanks to Manny’s little confession, I can’t. ”

Ruby struggled to her knees, her hand blindly grasping something from the coffee table. A siren wailed in the distance. Manny cursed, finger wrapping around the trigger.

“I’m sorry dear.” Mrs. Ulerik crooned to Kavya. “It’s nothing person—”

Kavya didn’t let her finish. She slammed her elbow into Mrs. Ulerik’s ribs and twisted hard, knocking the saw sideways.

Ruby chunked the item in her hand. The frog mug shattered against Mrs. Ulerik’s forehead, cooled tea seeping into the spots where ceramic shards embedded into her flesh.

She screamed, a gunshot rang through the room, glass shattered behind Ruby, and Kavya dropped to the floor.

Jonah wrestled the gun from Manny’s grip, flinging it across the room. Ruby staggered to her feet.

“Fuck you, dude!” Manny yelled. Jonah flipped him onto his back. His breath left him with a wheeze as he hit the hallway tiles.

The sirens grew close, doors slamming and feet treading across the grassy front lawn.

“How did they know where we were?” Jonah asked, turning Manny onto his stomach and pressing his knee into the younger man’s back.

“Oh shit,” Kavya muttered.

“Police!” Boomed from outside. “Open up.”

“We’re still live.” Kavya gestured toward the camera sitting on the coffee table.

Shit. There was no way the audience hadn’t seen Ruby get stabbed.

She crumbled to the floor, feigning injury, and let out the most fake, pathetic sounding moan she could manage.

Kavya opened the door, and two confused police officers stepped inside, taking in the scene—Mrs. Ulerik and Manny on the ground, both sobbing, Mrs. Ulerik clutching her bloodied face as tea dripped down her cheeks.

Jonah stood, allowing one police officer to cuff Manny while the other called for an ambulance. Ruby moaned again, slightly more realistically, purely for the sake of the camera. She shot a desperate look at Kavya, willing her to shut off the feed so she could stop the act.

“The audience isn’t going to buy a miraculous recovery,” Jonah whispered, crouching beside her and wrapping his arm around her waist to help her up. “Time to head to the hospital.”