Chapter 3

[POV: Nora]

The safe house on Ravenswood Street was my third location of the week.

I spent two days cataloging rogue medical signatures, such as the peculiar way their wounds scarred, the specific medications they favored, and the telltale patterns of underground medical treatment.

It was all legitimate research designed to mislead the Enforcement while making it appear as if I was making progress.

Captain Thorne hadn't questioned my methodology yet, which meant he either trusted me completely or hadn't found anything wrong.

I was betting on the latter.

"This location shows signs of habitation," I told him as we stood in the abandoned apartment. "But not recent Rogue activity. The medical waste is at least six months old."

What I didn't mention was that I had been here last week and collected evidence showing that Pack members had used the location to run an illegal drug operation. I also didn't mention that Enforcement's entire resource allocation was based on false assumptions about the location of the Rogue cells.

I was helping people they wanted dead.

My phone buzzed.

Unknown number: "You're being watched. Stop coming to marked locations. It's not safe."

I deleted the message, my hands trembling.

"Dr. Caldwell?" Thorne was watching me with the particular attention of a man who'd been trained to notice when people were hiding things. "Something wrong?"

"No," I said. "Just processing the patterns. They're more scattered than expected."

"That's what makes Reth dangerous," Thorne said. There was something almost admiring in his voice, which was worse than hatred. "He's not a typical Rogue leader. He's strategic. He thinks several moves ahead. Most Rogue cells get caught because their leaders are too arrogant or desperate. Reth operates like he's playing chess, not warfare."

I wondered what Thorne would think if he knew that I had been teaching Reth how to play chess.

"How long have you been hunting him?" I asked.

"Officially? "Three years since he disappeared into the underground. Unofficially?" Thorne's jaw tightened. "He was my partner once. Before he went rogue."

This was new information. It was the kind of detail that changed things.

"What happened?" I asked carefully.

"I don't know," Thorne replied. "That's what I'm trying to figure out." He just...left. No explanation. He left behind everything: his career, his standing, and his future. And he took three other trained operatives with him."

"Why would he do that?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Thorne looked at me as if testing something. "Some people say he was recruited by the Rogue leadership. Others say he discovered something he shouldn't have and had to run. Some people—" He paused. "Some people say the official story about the Rogues is wrong."

My heart stopped.

“What do you believe?” I asked.

"I believe my partner wouldn't have thrown away his entire life for nothing." Thorne turned away from me. "I believe there's a reason. I believe that finding Reth might be the only way to understand what's happening in this city."

He wasn't here to execute Rogues. He was here to understand them.

That meant he could be dangerous in an entirely different way.

[RETH | Timeline: Evening, same day | Location: Rooftop overlooking the city]

I watched Nora leave the Ravenswood Street location from three blocks away through a rifle scope that I wouldn't use.

Thorne was with her—good. He was keeping her safe without her knowing, just as I'd asked.

The text I'd sent her earlier had been necessary. She was getting too close to the real safe houses and was becoming too visible. Enforcement was starting to notice patterns in her investigations. If she kept it up, they'd realize she was either incompetent or complicit.

I could work with incompetence.

Complicity was a death sentence.

From my vantage point, I could see her shoulders tense as she read the message. I could see her hands shaking.

I recalled two years of late-night clinic visits and chess games on her apartment floor.

Thorne said something to her.

She shook her head.

They continued walking, and I followed them through the city streets, making sure nothing happened to her.

This was my penance—loving her from a distance and keeping her safe by keeping her in the dark.

It was supposed to be temporary.

Until the research went public.

Until the government fell, or until I did.

Until there was no more reason to keep her isolated from the truth.

But when I saw how she reacted—professional but cautious, complicit but uncomfortable—I realized Thorne was right.

She deserved to choose.

Tomorrow, he was going to give her that choice.

I just didn't know if I could survive watching her make it.