Lilith's POV
The car stopped at the gates of the Blackwood estate at five minutes to midnight.
Lilith sat in the back seat and looked at the building through the window and told herself for the last time that she could still leave. The driver hadn't locked the doors. The gold was already in her apartment. She could tell him to turn around right now and nothing would stop her.
She sat there for ten seconds telling herself that.
Then she got out of the car.
The estate was different at night the second time. The first time she'd been so terrified she'd barely seen it....just shadows and marble and the overwhelming smell of Alpha everywhere. Now she noticed details. The guards at the gate who stepped aside without a word when they saw her face. The long path through manicured grounds that felt less like a walkway and more like something deliberate...designed to make you feel small before you ever reached the door.
She kept her chin up the whole way.
