The safehouse bathroom light flickered as Alyssa pressed a bloodied gauze to her ribs. The warehouse ambush had left her with a graze from a stray bullet nothing fatal, but enough to sting like hell.
Dominic's voice came through the door. "We need to move. Petrov's men are sweeping the district."
She clenched her teeth. Petrov. Just hearing the name sent a cold tremor through her entire body system.
The last time she'd faced him, her partner hadn't walked away whole.
Three Years Earlier when the rain sluiced down the cobblestones as Alyssa crouched beside her partner, Liam, in the shadows of an alley. Their intel had been wrong. The meet was a setup.
"We need to pull back,"Liam hissed.
Then the shots rang out.
Petrov stepped from the mist like a phantom, his pistol smoking. Liam went down, clutching his stomach.
Alyssa lunged too late.
Petrov pressed the barrel to Liam's forehead. "Tell Volkov he should have sent better dogs."
The gunshot echoed in her nightmares for years.
Present Day
A knock startled her back to the present. Dominic stood in the doorway, his gaze dropping to her injury. "You're hurt."
"It's nothing." She yanked her shirt down.
He didn't buy it. "Petrov's here for you. Not just the mission you."
Alyssa's fingers twitched toward her knife. "I know."
Dominic hesitated, then pulled a file from his jacket. "Then you should also know *this*."
The photo showed Petrov standing beside a younger Dominic at a gala a decade ago.
Her blood turned to ice. "You *knew* him?"
"Not by choice." Dominic's voice was gravel. "My father did business with Volkov. I was there as a hostage to his good behavior."
Alyssa recoiled. "And you never thought to mention this?"
"I was sixteen." His eyes darkened. "But yes. I should have."
A beat of silence.
Then her phone buzzed an unknown number.
The text held one word: Liam
Attached was a photo of Petrov standing over a fresh grave.
Alyssa's vision tunneled. Dominic grabbed her arm as she surged forward. "It's a trap"
She wrenched free. "I don't care."