Damien pov:
"She's playing a game that could get her killed."
"She knows that. And she's doing it anyway." Carlos paused. "Damien, I know this is hard. But she made her choice. We can watch. We can be ready to help if things go wrong. But we can't stop her."
"I know."
"Do you? Because every time I talk to you about this, I can hear you wanting to go up there and drag her back."
"Of course I want that. But I won't because it won't work. She'd disappear again. Change names. Go somewhere we can't find her."
"Exactly. So we watch. We wait. And we trust that somewhere under Victoria Reyes, Elena Castellano still knows what she's doing."
I hung up.
Lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
Thinking about a woman with a new face sitting in a coffee shop in Montana, smiling at the man who'd broken her fingers and force-fed her and told her she didn't get to choose how she died.
Smiling at him like he was a stranger worth knowing.
Like he was someone she might actually like.
