Page 23 of Bride of Vengeance
"My niece.Mila thinks I died in the Chernobyl disaster twenty-three years ago, along with the rest of our family. It's safer for everyone if she continues to believe that."
"But you're alive."
"Mikhail Kozlov died in that reactor. What emerged from the radiation and government cover-ups and black operations that don't officially exist... that's something else entirely."
She sinks back onto the bar stool, processing this information with the analytical mind that made her such an effective hunter.
"The legitimacy project," she says slowly. "You've been protecting it from the inside."
"Every federal witness who decided to talk, every piece of evidence that appeared in the right place at the right time, every obstacle that mysteriously disappeared..." I watch understanding dawn in her eyes. "It was me taking care of my family."
"You've been helping my investigation."
"I've been making sure it succeeded without getting you killed."
She stares at me for a long moment, and I can see her rebuilding everything she thought she knew. The Ghost isn't the enemy of law enforcement - he's been its secret ally. The phantom killer she's been hunting has been protecting her investigation from the shadows.
"Harrison," she says finally. "He knows, doesn't he? That's why he's trying to destroy both of us."
"Harrison has known there was a connection between Ghost and the legitimacy project for months. Tonight's assassination attempt was designed to eliminate both threats at once."
"By framing me for treason and killing you in the process."
"Elegant, efficient, and completely deniable." I pull out my phone, checking the encrypted messages that have been coming in since we left her building. "Speaking of which, we need to discuss your current legal status."
"My what?"
I turn the phone so she can see the federal alert that went out twenty minutes ago. Her photograph stares back from the screen, along with text that makes my jaw clench with barely contained fury.
FEDERAL FUGITIVE - ARMED AND DANGEROUS. Special Agent Mariana Castillo Wanted for conspiracy, treason, and murder of federal personnel. Approach with extreme caution
The color drains from her face as she reads. "Murder of federal personnel?"
"Harrison is claiming you killed those contractors. That you've been working with Ghost to eliminate witnesses and obstruct federal investigations."
"That's impossible. There were witnesses, crime scene evidence—"
"All controlled by the same man who just put a team of killers in your apartment." I take the phone back, deleting the alert from the screen. "Harrison has had months to prepare for this moment. Every piece of evidence, every witness statement, every official report will support his version of events."
She looks lost, vulnerable in a way that makes my protective instincts roar to life. Twenty minutes ago she was a federal agent hunting a phantom. Now she's a wanted fugitive with nowhere to go and no one to trust.
Except me.
"What am I supposed to do?" she asks quietly. "My career, my life, everything I've worked for..."
"Gone." I say it as gently as I can, but there's no softening a truth that brutal. "Harrison made sure of that the moment he decided you were a threat."
"So what now?"
Now you trust me completely, or we both die.
"Now we prove Harrison is the real traitor. We expose his trafficking network, gather evidence of his corruption, and clear both our names before his people hunt us down."
"And if we can't?"
I meet her amber eyes, letting her see the determination that's kept me alive for fifteen years.
"Then we disappear. New identities, new lives, somewhere Harrison's reach can't follow."
