Chapter 696
Chapter 696:
The back door creaked open.
Harper turned, wiping flour from her hands. “Liam? Is that you p>
A figure stepped out of the shadows. It wasn’t Liam. It was a woman dressed in dark tactical gear, her face obscured by a mask, but her eyes were chillingly familiar.
“Sienna?” Harper gasped, recognizing the woman who used to be Liam’s fiancée, the fallen star who was supposed to be in exile. “How did you get in here p>
Sienna Quinn didn’t answer. She moved with a lethal grace Harper had never seen before. She raised a suppressed pistol.
“Sorry, Harper,” Sienna said, her voice devoid of emotion. “Wrong place, wrong time p>
She fired. A tranquilizer dart hit Harper in the neck. The housekeeper crumpled to the floor.
Sienna stepped over her. She wasn’t here for the staff. She was here for the data.
She moved to the hallway, pulling a canister of military-grade incendiary gel from her pack. Lucian’s instructions had been clear: If I go down, the evidence goes with me. Burn the hard drives in the basement vault.
She began to spray the gel along the baseboards, creating a path toward the basement door.
Upstairs, the lights in Liam’s study flickered. The internet connection died.
Liam froze. He looked at the router. The lights were off.
Power cut.
He opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a Sig Sauer P226. He racked the slide.
He moved to the door, listening.
He smelled it.
Smoke. And the chemical tang of accelerant.
𝗜n𝘴𝗍𝘢ո𝘵 ac𝘤𝗲𝘀ѕ 𝗼n 𝖻е𝗹𝘯𝗈𝗏𝘦𝘭ѕ.𝘤𝘰𝗺
We burst into the alley behind the Neon Abyss. The cool night air hit my face, drying the sweat on my forehead.
“Car. Now,” Alistair barked, shoving Parker toward where we had parked the muscle car.
We sprinted down the block. I could see the silhouette of our car and Victoria Hayes’s terrified face pressed against the window. She unlocked the doors as we approached.
I slammed the USB drive into my laptop as I slid into the driver’s seat. Alistair took shotgun, and Parker piled into the back with Victoria.
“What did you get?” Alistair asked, his eyes scanning the perimeter.
“Transaction logs,” I said, my fingers flying over the keys. “It’s a massive network. The money from the arcade isn’t just going to offshore accounts. It’s routed through a server called K-SYN p>
“K-Syndicate,” Parker whispered from the back seat. He was pale, clutching a half-eaten bag of pretzels he must have stolen from the VIP bar. “I’ve heard of them on the dark web. They’re… they’re the bogeymen of the financial world p>
My phone rang. The screen lit up with a red border.
EMERGENCY – LIAM.
I answered instantly. “Liam p>