Night erased the city in layers of black and steel.

Ethan sat alone in the dim interior of his car, engine off, phone vibrating silently in his palm. The glow of the screen illuminated his face—sharp, hollowed, stripped of pretense. On it was a list of names Alyssa didn’t know existed. Men who watched her from shadows. Shell companies that moved when she moved. Bank transfers timed too precisely to be coincidence.

Threats.

All of them pointed toward her.

He exhaled slowly, jaw tightening.

“She doesn’t need to know,” he muttered to no one.

That was the lie he kept telling himself.

Alyssa was strong—too strong. She believed in confrontation,...