LANCE'S POV:
Luis wasn't supposed to die.
I keep playing his voice in my head cracked, panicked, desperate the last voicemail he left before everything spiraled into this mess.
"Au, please be safe! They are trying to get you, they are trying to kill you, they're planning to kill you. They're he—"
And then nothing. Silence.
A clipped breath. Static.
I stood in the middle of the operations room inside the NBI cyber division's off-record surveillance unit, jaw clenched, palms damp, as Nico played the file for what must've been the twentieth time.
Same static. Same incompleteness. Still no damn clue who "they" are.
"Can't you enhance it?" I asked, voice hoarse. "Maybe isolate the last part of the audio?"
"We tried," Nico replied, not even looking up from his monitor. "Whatever scrambled the signal scrambled it hard. We're working off fragments."
"Fragments don't save lives," I snapped.
He looked at me then, not insulted, just exhausted. Like me. We were both running on caffeine, adrenaline, and fury.
"There's more," he said, clicking through the file directory. "We pulled Luis' call logs. Right before he collapsed, he made two calls. One didn't connect. The other—"
He turned the screen.
Aurora's name lit up in the call history.
Timestamp: 11:43 PM. Exactly six minutes before the emergency call went out from the private party.
"He called her," I murmured.
"Yeah. She didn't pick up," Nico said. "She said her phone was charging. When we asked again, she froze. Said she didn't even know Luis was trying to reach her that night."
"Because he didn't just want to talk," I whispered. "He was trying to warn her."
Nico nodded.
The tension in my chest hardened.
Like a boulder grinding against bone.
I ran both hands through my hair and stepped back from the screen, trying to process what this meant. Trying to filter out the fear from the rage.
Why would Luis know someone was trying to kill her?
What the hell did he see?
And more importantly, who?
We'd barely scratched the surface of this damn thing, and now the NBI wanted to close the case?
"The report says it's inconclusive," Nico said, flipping a file onto the desk between us. "Toxicology confirms MDMA, but not ingested. Injected. No residue in the stomach. It was clean. Clinical."
"They drugged him," I muttered.
Nico nodded. "He didn't know. Whoever did it knew what they were doing. Controlled dosage. Just enough to mess with his body before the adrenaline crash."
I swallowed hard. "That's murder."
Nico's eyes met mine. "It is. But the NBI wants it filed as accidental overdose."
"Fuck that," I spat, slamming my fist on the table.
"Exactly my words." He exhaled shakily. "They're saying the public pressure's dying down. No further viable leads. And get this — they're planning to remove Judge Javier from the oversight panel. Conflict of interest daw. And yet…"
I tensed. "Yet?"
He clicked again, a new CCTV grab lit the screen. Clear. High-definition. Date-stamped from last night. BGC, near High Street.
Julius Evangelista.
And walking two steps behind him?
Judge Javier.
No bodyguards.
No press.
Just the two of them, talking like old friends.
"What the hell is she doing with him?" I muttered. "A sitting judge and the president's son, meeting in secret?"
"She's not who she says she is, Lance," Nico said. "And i don't think she's foreign. That woman we saw at the party pretending to be some 'foreign guest' with Julius? Same build. Same earrings. Same fucking posture."
"Judge Javier was at the party," I whispered.
"And she's now tied to the only person who's been circling Aurora like a vulture since this mess started."
I didn't say anything for a long time.
Just stared at the photo, my mind reeling.
Pieces were moving. Too cleanly. Too quietly.
And then, Nico's phone buzzed.
He picked it up, answered quickly — "Hello?"
A pause. His expression changed.
"What? When? Shit—okay. No, don't lose that. We'll handle it."
He ended the call and looked at me grimly.
"Someone called the tip line," he said. "Claimed they were at the party. Claimed they saw who injected Luis."
My stomach dropped.
"Where is this person?"
"Gone again," Nico muttered. "Disconnected their number. Burner phone. No way to trace it."
Of course.
Of fucking course.
My fist slammed the edge of the table so hard the keyboard rattled.
"Every time someone tries to talk, they disappear!" I roared. "Every time we get one step closer, something—someone—shuts them up!"
"Lance," Nico said carefully, "they're watching us. They're watching this. I think Judge Javier's got people inside. Maybe even inside our circle."
"Then we go outside the circle," I growled. "We find our own people. We don't stop. Even if they try to bury this, we don't stop."
I grabbed my jacket.
"Where are you going?" Nico asked.
I didn't answer at first.
Just clenched my jaw and said, "To the safehouse. Aurora's there."
He nodded once.
I left without another word.
It was nearing midnight when i arrived.
The road was quiet, too quiet. Every streetlight cast long, eerie shadows on the pavement.
I parked two blocks away and walked the rest of the distance. Too paranoid to bring a traceable plate near the building.
Three men were on shift tonigh, private security i hired personally. Trusted. Vetted.
"Attorney Lance," one of them greeted at the service entrance.
"All good?" I asked.
"So far. Miss Aurora hasn't left. She's upstairs. Camera feeds are clear. No tails."
I nodded, gave a tight pat to his shoulder, and headed up.
When i opened the door to the unit, the first thing i heard was the kettle whistling.
Then, her voice.
"I didn't think you'd still come tonight."
She was in the kitchen, barefoot, hair loose, wearing one of my hoodies.
Aurora.
I didn't say anything. I just walked toward her.
And the moment she turned to face me—
I pulled her into my arms.
She let out a small gasp, but she didn't resist.
Her arms wrapped around my waist. Her face buried against my chest. Her whole body trembling slightly.
"They're still coming after you," I said hoarsely. "Even now."
"I know," she whispered. "I got another text."
My stomach knotted.
She pulled out her phone from the hoodie pocket and handed it to me.
The message was simple.
You should've died that night. He did instead.
No number. No trace.
Just venom.
Just hate.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to burn the whole city down.
Instead, I hugged her tighter.
"I'm not letting them touch you," I said through gritted teeth. "No matter who they are. No matter what they hide behind."
She pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes.
"They want you to stop," she whispered. "They want us scared."
"They're going to be disappointed."
Her hand slid into mine.
"Then don't stop," she said.
"I won't."