Chapter 1 - The Judas Kiss at the Cliff’s Edge
The salt water was a freezing shroud.
I lay on the jagged rocks, gasping for air that felt like needles in my lungs.
Above me, the silhouette of the SUV was a dark stain against the purple twilight.
Sebastian stood at the edge, the wind whipping his jacket.
He looked like a god surveying his kingdom.
Beside him stood Evelyn Vance.
My attorney.
The woman who had sat in my living room and promised to protect my legacy.
The woman who had helped me rewrite my will to exclude Sebastian.
Now, she was handing him a flask.
They weren't grieving.
They were celebrating.
I realized then that the "will" I had signed wasn't the one I had read.
Evelyn hadn't been helping me.
She had been documenting my fears so Sebastian could bypass them.
She knew about Lucia.
She knew about the parachute.
That was why it hadn't opened on the first two pulls.
They had tampered with it.
They intended for me to plummet into the waves as a broken mess of flesh and bone.
"They're coming down," I whispered to the wet sand.
I saw them moving toward the narrow path that led to the beach.
They wanted a body.
They needed a confirmation of death to trigger the insurance and the inheritance.
I tried to move, but my legs felt like lead.
The weight of the baby made every inch of progress a battle.
Then, a low hum vibrated through the water.
It wasn't a helicopter.
It was a high-speed stealth boat, cutting through the waves without lights.
A spotlight flickered once—a sharp, red beam.
Lucia.
She hadn't waited for the extraction signal.
She had been tracking my vitals from the moment I left the house.
The boat skidded onto the sand fifty yards away.
A figure blurred across the rocks.
Lucia grabbed me before I could even say her name.
"Don't speak," she hissed.
"Vitals are low. We have to move."
She slung my arm over her shoulder and practically carried me toward the boat.
I looked back one last time.
At the top of the path, Sebastian stopped.
He had seen the boat.
He pulled a hand-held radio from his pocket.
"He's calling his security team," I managed to choke out.
"Let him call the devil himself," Lucia replied.
She threw me onto the deck of the boat and pushed the throttles forward.
The engine roared, and we surged into the dark heart of the Pacific.
Bullets sparked against the water behind us.
Sebastian was firing blindly into the dark.
I lay on the deck, clutching my stomach.
The cold was starting to take me.
"Is the baby okay?" I asked, my voice fading.
Lucia hooked me up to a portable monitor.
The steady, rhythmic thump-thump-thump filled the small cabin.
"The heart is strong, Val," Lucia said, her eyes fixed on the radar.
"But the war has just started."
"They think you're dead."
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"For now, we let them keep thinking it."
***
