Zara's POV.
The walls were white. Too white. The kind of sterile, suffocating white that made my skin itch. They'd stripped me of my weapons, cuffed me to a cold steel chair, and left me under a single buzzing light.
Interrogation room. Classic. But this wasn't my first rodeo. I'd been on both sides of the table before—sometimes the interrogator, sometimes the prey. Tonight, unfortunately, I was the prey.
The door creaked open. Aria stepped in, heels clicking like gunshots, lips curved in that sly smile that had once fooled entire governments. She looked immaculate—tailored black suit, diamond pin glinting at her collar.
"Zara," she purred, dragging out my name like it was silk. "You never disappoint. Always where the action is… always with the wrong man."
Leo. My pulse spiked. I clenched my jaw, refusing to give her the satisfaction of a reaction.
Aria circled me slowly, like a shark that had already tasted blood. "Tell me… what has Leo promised you this time? Freedom? Riches? Love?" Her laugh was soft, deadly. "You're smarter than that."
I bit back the urge to spit in her face. "If you think I'll hand him over, you've forgotten who I am."
She leaned close, whispering against my ear. "No, darling. I remember exactly who you are. The problem is—you've forgotten who he is."
And then she slid a file across the table. Leo's face stared back at me. Not just a mercenary. Not just a partner. But classified reports stamped Betrayal, Double Agent, and worse—Assassin for hire. My stomach dropped.
Before I could process it, the door slammed again. This time, it was Leo himself—shoved into the room by two guards, wrists bound, blood smeared across his temple.
Our eyes locked. His—stormy, desperate. Mine—burning with questions. Was it true?
<<<<<
Leo's POV.
The moment I saw the file on the table, I knew Aria had played her trump card.
Zara's gaze cut into me like a blade—accusing, searching, breaking. I wanted to shout the truth, but my throat felt strangled by everything I couldn't say.
"Tell her," Aria said smoothly, perching on the edge of the table like a queen watching pawns tear each other apart. "Tell her what you've done, Leo. Or should I?"
I yanked against the cuffs, metal biting into my skin. "Don't listen to her, Zara. She twists truths until they bleed lies."
Her jaw clenched. "So you're not a killer for hire? You didn't take contracts behind my back?"
The silence in the room was deafening.
I couldn't answer fast enough. Couldn't explain. And that silence—Aria owned it, weaponized it. Zara's eyes flashed betrayal. That cut deeper than any knife.
<<<<<
Zara's POV.
My heart was a battlefield. Every instinct screamed at me to believe him, to remember every time he'd taken a bullet for me, every night he'd stood guard while I slept. But the evidence…the silence.
Aria smirked. "I'll give you both a choice. Deliver me the drive by midnight… or I'll bury you together."
The guards dragged Leo out, leaving me in that suffocating white room.
For the first time, I didn't know if my fight was against Aria… or against my own heart.
Hours Later – Convoy.
They thought they had us locked down. Hands bound, eyes covered, shoved into the back of a black armored SUV. But if there was one thing Leo and I were good at—it was turning traps into warzones.
I felt the brush of his fingers against mine in the dark. A code. A promise. We weren't done yet.
The convoy rolled into the night, engines humming. And then—an explosion ripped the road ahead. Gunfire. Screams. Chaos.
Leo's voice roared beside me: "Now, Zara!"
We moved as one—wrists snapping free, boots slamming into guards, blood spraying against the SUV windows.
Enemies or not, betrayal or not—tonight we were partners again. And God help anyone who stood in our way.