Page 41 of Shadowed Sins: Nitro

"At least now his destruction has direction," she adds.

"Which is?" Cole demands.

"Me." Simple. Honest. Terrifying.

"You're using him," Asher states.

"We're using each other." No denial, but not quite admission either. "Though it's become... complicated."

"Complicated how?" Remy asks.

She considers this, head tilting slightly. "Your operative has developed an inconvenient significance."

My breath catches.She just admitted I matter.

"Which makes him a target," Cole says slowly.

"We're already targets." For the first time since she entered the room, something flickers across her face—annoyance? Concern? "The cemetery wasn't random. There are people watching me. Now they're watching him too."

"Who?" Cole leans forward.

"People with excellent aim and flexible morals." She examines her nails. "But that's my situation to manage."

"Not if it endangers our operative."

"Your operative was already endangered. By himself." She moves toward the door again. "The gambling debts. The survivor's guilt. The complete inability to process whatever loss has you all walking around like specters."

She's at the door now, hand on the handle.

"This ends badly," Cole warns.

"Everything interesting does." She opens the door, then looks back at me. "Parking garage. Level three. Five minutes."

The door closes behind her with a soft click that might as well be a gunshot.

Silence stretches for about three seconds.

"She's being hunted," Asher states the obvious.

"By the same people who came after you both at the cemetery," Cole adds.

"Which means she needs protection," Remy says, surprising everyone.

"She won't accept protection," I say automatically. "She doesn't accept help."

"Then we make it about the mission." Cole's already thinking tactically. "She has intel. Connections. Knowledge about the Bratva operations."

"You want to bring her to the safehouse?" Asher sounds skeptical.

"I want to keep our operative alive," Cole corrects. "And if she's the reason he's being targeted, we need her where we can monitor the situation."

"She'll never agree to—"

"Then convince her." Cole's eyes bore into mine. "Make it operational necessity, not protection. She seems to respond to logic over emotion."

"RPV is secure," Remy adds. "Isolated enough for her paranoia, close enough to coordinate."

"This is insane," Asher mutters. "We're talking about bringing an assassin into our safehouse."