The hideout was eerily quiet in the early morning. Shadows stretched long across the cracked concrete floor, cast by the dim glow of the rising sun filtering through boarded-up windows. The world outside was waking, but inside, everything remained still.
Evie sat alone, hunched over on an old crate, staring at the ground. Sleep had eluded her, chased away by the gnawing unease that had settled in her chest. The weight of the past few days pressed against her ribs, heavy and suffocating. Something was wrong. She could feel it.
The door creaked open.
Evie stiffened as Maya stepped inside. The doctor moved with quiet precision, her sharp gaze sweeping the room before settling on Evie. There was no anger in her expression, no outright hostility—just a calculated stillness that made the air feel colder.
Evie swallowed. "Morning," she murmured, forcing her voice to stay even.
Maya didn't respond. She simply walked toward the single table in the room, setting down her wristpad with a soft click. A pale blue glow illuminated her fingers as she tapped through files, scrolling with the kind of detached focus that made Evie's stomach twist.
"You were the last one to access the logs before we left the facility," Maya said finally. Her voice was quiet, but there was a weight to it, pressing down like a held breath.
Evie frowned. "What?"
Maya turned the screen toward her. Lines of code. System timestamps. Security overrides. Evie barely understood what she was looking at, but something about the way Maya was presenting it made her pulse quicken.
"I reviewed everything last night," Maya continued. "The security measures were already altered before we even got inside. Someone tampered with the system ahead of time—just enough to mask our presence. Just enough to ensure we wouldn't trigger any major alarms."
Evie shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Why would someone do that?"
Maya watched her. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Silence stretched between them.
Evie shifted uncomfortably, crossing her arms. "Are you saying one of us did it?"
"I'm saying," Maya said evenly, "that someone knew exactly when and where we would be. And that someone ensured we had a clean entry—right up until the moment we were compromised."
A chill crawled down Evie's spine. She clenched her jaw. "You think it was me?"
"I think you're the only variable I can't explain."
Evie felt her stomach drop. "That's insane," she said quickly. "I wouldn't—" She stopped herself, inhaling sharply. "I didn't do anything."
Maya leaned forward slightly. "Then explain how they found us so quickly."
"I—I don't know."
Evie could hear the blood rushing in her ears, the way her heartbeat pounded against her ribs. She had been so careful. She had made sure no one was following her. The only assassin she knew about was the one actively hunting her, the one she had managed to evade.
Hadn't she?
She gritted her teeth. "I didn't lead them to us."
Maya was silent for a long moment, her gaze unwavering. Then she exhaled softly and leaned back. "Not intentionally."
Evie's breath caught.
Maya tapped the wristpad, scrolling through more data. "You were the only one moving freely before we regrouped," she said. "The rest of us stayed hidden, followed the plan exactly. But you—" Her eyes lifted again. "You were the unknown factor."
Evie's hands clenched against her knees. "I wasn't being followed."
"You thought you weren't."
A sharp pang of doubt lanced through Evie's chest. She shook her head. "No. No, I checked. I was careful."
Maya didn't argue. She simply waited.
And that silence—that unbearable patience—was worse than any accusation.
Evie inhaled shakily. She replayed her steps in her mind, every alley she had crossed, every shadow she had slipped through. She had been cautious. Hadn't she?
She had only gone to see Cam.
Her stomach twisted.
Maya saw it—the moment hesitation flickered across Evie's face. The doctor's expression remained cold, but her voice was softer now, almost clinical. "Who did you meet before we regrouped?"
Evie's throat went dry.
"I—"
It was nothing. It had to be nothing.
But suddenly, she remembered the way Cam had looked at her. The tension in his shoulders. The way he had seemed distant, nervous.
No.
No, he wouldn't have—
Maya's voice cut through her thoughts. "Evie."
She swallowed hard. "Cam."
Maya didn't move, didn't react. She simply nodded. "When?"
Evie's hands trembled slightly. "Right before we met up."
Another pause. Then—
"What did you tell him?"
Evie felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs. She could barely whisper the words. "Where I was going."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Maya's gaze was unreadable. "And then the assassins found us."
Evie shook her head. "No. That's not—he wouldn't—" She swallowed back the rising panic. "He wouldn't betray me."
Maya was unmoved. "You think he had a choice?"
Evie's breath came in short, uneven gasps.
Maya stood, gathering her wristpad. Her voice remained cool, emotionless. "You weren't the one they were tracking." She turned toward the door. "You were the bait."
Evie shot up from her seat. "Maya, wait—"
But Maya was already walking away, her words cutting through the dim light like a blade.
"Tell Jarad."
And then she was gone, leaving Evie alone—drowning in the crushing realization that she had led the assassins straight to them.
---
The morning air was cold, carrying the scent of rust and damp concrete through the cracks in the safe house walls. The city outside was waking, distant murmurs of movement filtering through the silence. Inside, the team remained in uneasy rest—no one had truly slept after the previous night's mission.
Maya moved quietly through the dimly lit space, stepping over scattered supplies and past the rhythmic rise and fall of sleeping bodies. She wasn't surprised to find Jarad already awake, crouched near the far wall, checking over weapons and rations with methodical precision.
He didn't look up when she approached, but she knew he sensed her presence.
"We need to talk."
His hands didn't pause, but something in his posture shifted—small, almost imperceptible. He finished securing a rifle before standing, his sharp gaze settling on her.
"I'm listening."
Maya crossed her arms, voice steady. "I know how they found us."
That got his full attention. His expression didn't change, but his focus sharpened, honing in on her like a predator catching a scent.
"Go on."
"Someone tampered with the system. The information I retrieved—it was altered. Not just scrambled, but deliberately fed back to the ORPHANAGE. It wasn't a security breach, it was interference."
Jarad's jaw tightened slightly. He had suspected something was off. The timing of their escape, the eerily quiet aftermath—it all felt wrong. But hearing it confirmed sent a slow-burning heat through his chest.
"You know who did it?"
Maya didn't blink. "Evie does."
Silence stretched between them, heavy and expectant. Jarad's gaze darkened, but not in anger. In understanding.
"She told you?"
"No."
He exhaled slowly, running a hand down his face before lowering it. "But you confronted her."
Maya nodded. "She knew something. She tried to deflect, but I cornered her. She broke down before she could say a name, but it's clear—someone close to her betrayed us. And she's protecting them."
Jarad didn't respond immediately. He stood still, processing. Maya could see it—the careful way he weighed her words, dissected every possibility.
Then, finally—
"She's not going to tell me."
It wasn't a question. It was fact.
Maya tilted her head slightly. "Not willingly. But you already knew that."
A muscle in Jarad's jaw twitched. He didn't like this. Maya could tell. Not the betrayal—he expected that, always—but the fact that Evie was keeping it from him.
"I need to hear it from her," he said at last, voice quiet but edged with steel.
Maya said nothing as he stepped past her, moving toward the other side of the safe house where Evie sat alone. She had curled herself into a corner, knees pulled to her chest, fingers twitching against the fabric of her sleeves.
Jarad approached without a word, stopping just short of where she sat. She didn't look up at first, but he waited.
When she finally raised her head, her eyes were red-rimmed, but there was defiance there too.
"Who betrayed us?"
The question was simple. Direct.
Evie flinched but didn't answer.
"Evie."
The weight of her name, spoken in that low, controlled voice, sent a shiver down her spine. She knew this moment was coming. She had tried to brace herself, tried to build walls around her guilt, but under Jarad's gaze, they crumbled.
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Jarad crouched in front of her, lowering himself to her level. Not looming. Not aggressive. Just there.
Waiting.
"I'm not asking a second time."
Evie squeezed her eyes shut. "I didn't know."
Jarad's head tilted slightly. "Didn't know what?"
"That I was being tracked," she whispered. "I thought—I thought only one assassin was after me. I didn't know there were more. I didn't know they followed me to him."
Jarad's expression didn't shift, but Evie felt the change in the air.
"Him."
It wasn't a question.
Evie sucked in a shaky breath.
"Cam."
The name barely left her lips before the weight of it crashed down on her shoulders. The shame. The guilt. The realization that she had carried this burden for nothing because, in the end, the truth was unavoidable.
Jarad was silent for a long moment. Then—
"Explain."
The word was quiet, but Evie heard the demand beneath it.
Her breath hitched as she forced herself to continue. "They found him because of me. I left a trail I didn't know about. They got to him first. They—they threatened him."
Her throat tightened.
"He gave me up to save himself."
There. It was out. The truth lay between them, raw and exposed.
Evie braced herself for anger. For disgust.
But Jarad didn't move.
His expression remained unreadable, his stare unwavering.
"And you were going to keep this from me?"
Evie swallowed hard. "I thought—" She stopped herself. What had she thought? That it wouldn't matter? That she could fix it on her own?
Jarad didn't let her flounder.
"You protected him."
A statement, not a question.
Evie bit her lip, shame burning through her. "I just—I wanted to understand. I wanted to believe he—"
"It doesn't matter what you wanted."
The coldness in Jarad's voice made her stomach drop.
"You put us all at risk because you didn't want to face the truth."
Evie shut her eyes, willing herself to disappear, but Jarad's voice dragged her back.
"If Maya hadn't figured it out, would you have ever told me?"
She didn't answer.
And in that silence, he had his answer.
Jarad stood, his movements slow and deliberate. When she finally forced herself to look up, he wasn't watching her anymore—he was looking past her, toward the door.
He was already thinking ahead. Already planning.
Evie felt something deep inside her crack.
Jarad's voice was quiet when he spoke again.
"You're coming with me."
Evie's pulse spiked. "Where?"
"To clean up your mess."
The words were final. Unforgiving.
And for the first time in a long time, Evie realized—Jarad wasn't just her brother.
He was her executioner.