Prologue

The first time Lillian Everett learned how fragile trust could be, she was ten years old.

It was a stormy night, much like this one, when she last saw her father alive. She remembered the flickering candlelight in their small study, the hurried whispers between him and her older brother, Elias. She wasn't supposed to be awake, wasn't supposed to hear the way her father's voice trembled as he spoke of betrayal and danger. But she had been a child who didn't understand the weight of secrets. She had stepped into that room, wide-eyed and confused, only for Elias to rush toward her, gripping her shoulders with a force that scared her.

"Go back to bed, Lily," he had whispered, his voice desperate. "You weren't supposed to hear that."

But it was already too late.

Hours later, their father was gone—vanished into the night without a trace. And by morning, Elias was, too.

For years, she was told Elias had died. That he had run away like a coward or that he had met the same fate as their father. The whispers never stopped, the rumors of treason, of secrets too dangerous to be spoken aloud. Her family had been torn apart, leaving only ghosts in their wake.

And Lily never forgot.

Now, thirteen years later, standing in the middle of a dimly lit alleyway, soaked from the relentless rain, she knew this moment was the beginning of something just as irreversible.

Her hands trembled as she clutched the small, weathered notebook to her chest. Her father's notebook. The ink had faded in places, the pages brittle with time, but the words scrawled inside were unmistakable. Names. Places. Hidden transactions. Evidence of something far greater than she had ever imagined.

And at the center of it all—Elias Everett's name.

She had spent years searching for the truth, hoping, praying that somewhere in the endless fragments of unanswered questions, she would find him. But now that she had, she wasn't sure she could accept the answer.

He wasn't dead.

He had never been dead.

A gust of wind howled through the alley, sending a chill through her soaked clothes, but it wasn't the cold that made her shiver. It was fear. Because if Elias had been alive all these years… why had he never come back for her?

She turned her head slightly, sensing movement in the shadows. She wasn't alone.

"Drop the book," a voice ordered, sharp and unyielding.

Lily's grip tightened. She had come too far, risked too much. She wouldn't stop now.

"No," she whispered, taking a step back.

The figure stepped forward, illuminated by the dim glow of a streetlamp. Noah Carter.

A name she had only recently learned—a man she had been warned about. Former mercenary. Dangerous. Unpredictable. And yet, here he was, standing between her and the truth she had spent her whole life chasing.

"I won't ask again," Noah said, his voice as cold as the rain around them.

Lily swallowed hard. She had two choices—run and risk never uncovering the truth, or stand her ground and face whatever came next.

For the first time in her life, she wasn't going to run.

Instead, she lifted her chin, staring him down with the same determination that had gotten her this far.

"You're going to have to take it from me."

Noah's eyes darkened.

And just like that, the chase began.