Page 93 of Tag (The Golden Team #9)

Tag

L acey sat at the table, a steaming mug of cocoa in her hands, Blue hovering nearby like a mama hawk. The kid didn’t ask for anything except paper and colored pencils.

She’d already drawn five locations.

Four names.

Three were aliases we’d seen on Chimera’s files.

But the fifth?

The fifth stopped Aponi cold.

We all stood around the table, staring down at the fifth name, written in neat block letters across the top of the newest sheet:

TESSA LAWSON.

Faron frowned. “Who the hell is Tessa Lawson?”

I glanced at Aponi.

Her face had gone still—too still.

Then she whispered, “She’s my handler.”

Silence hit the room like a gunshot.

“She recruited me,” Aponi said quietly. “When I was seventeen. Found me after I’d been on the run. Got me into the college. Said she worked for a deep-shadow government program that helped turn lost kids around.”

Her voice cracked. “I thought she saved me.”

Lacey didn’t look up. “She didn’t. She designed you.”

Fury flashed in Aponi’s eyes. “I would’ve known. I would’ve felt it.”

Lacey finally looked up. “Did you feel like you belonged anywhere? Or did you always feel like you were still being watched?”

That shut the whole room down.

I stepped closer, voice steady. “Are you sure about this, kid?”

Lacey pointed at her drawing. A warehouse with fencing. Surveillance towers. A helipad.

“She visited once a month. Never used her real name. But I found it scribbled on a box once—Tessa Lawson. She always asked about Isabelle. Said she needed an update. Said the project wasn’t over.”

Aponi backed away from the table, her chest rising and falling in short bursts.

“I need air,” she choked out, turning on her heel and pushing out the door.

I followed her.

Out back, the desert wind whipped across the open plain, and she stood at the edge of the fence, gripping the wire like it could hold her upright.

“They built me,” she said, voice raw. “I’ve been fighting my entire life to not be what they wanted. And now… it turns out they never stopped pulling the strings.”

I stepped behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist, resting my chin on her shoulder. “But you did break away. You became something better. Stronger. Real .”

She turned into me, burying her face in my chest. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

“You don’t have to trust anyone else,” I said. “Just trust me. We’ll take Lawson down together.”

She nodded slowly, then looked up at me with that fire I loved. “And when we do… I want her to look me in the eye and see everything she failed to destroy.”