Chapter 8
Fear has a taste.
Metal.
Bitter.
Cold under the tongue.
I tasted it as Cole’s gun pressed into my back.
Luca stood beside me with his hands raised, blood already soaking through the bandage on his arm.
Cole’s men searched us.
They took my earpiece.
My phone.
Luca’s weapon.
Then Cole leaned close.
“Your husband ruined a very profitable arrangement.”
I stared forward.
“If you mean selling babies, say it plainly.”
His jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
“No. I am done being careful for monsters.”
He shoved me forward.
We were taken into the evidence vault.
Rows of shelves.
Boxes.
Drives.
Locked cabinets.
Lives stacked in paperwork.
David stood near the far wall with his hands raised.
His face changed when he saw me.
Pain.
Fear.
Love.
Guilt.
All of it.
Cole smiled.
“Touching. Really.”
David looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Later,” I said.
Cole laughed.
“Assuming there is one.”
He held out a small drive.
“Unlock the master file.”
David shook his head.
“You destroy this, the copies still exist.”
“Yes, but copies can be challenged. Chain of custody matters. Original evidence matters. You know that.”
I looked around.
Original evidence.
My eyes caught a shelf labeled neonatal transfer archives.
Boxes from Hopkins.
From St. Agnes.
From Mercy General.
So many.
My stomach twisted.
Cole followed my gaze.
“Do you want to know something cruel, Catherine?”
I said nothing.
“Your husband could have come home six months ago.”
David went still.
Cole smiled wider.
“I offered him a deal. Finish the encryption work, hand over Romano’s evidence, and I would relocate your family. New names. New life.”
I turned to David.
He looked destroyed.
“I refused,” he whispered.
Cole added, “But he considered it.”
The words cut.
David said, “For one hour. Because I thought it would keep you and Logan alive. Then I realized he would never stop owning us.”
I wanted to believe him.
I hated that I did.
Cole pointed the gun toward me.
“Unlock it.”
David’s hands shook over the keyboard.
“No.”
Cole aimed at my leg.
I did not move.
David shouted, “Wait!”
There it was.
The limit.
Me.
Cole knew it.
So did I.
And suddenly I understood the trap David had lived inside.
Love as leverage.
Family as weapon.
Fear as chain.
I stepped forward before anyone could stop me.
“David.”
He looked at me.
“If you unlock it to save me, he owns Logan next.”
His face crumpled.
“I can’t lose you again.”
“You already did once by choosing fear alone. Don’t do it twice.”
Cole’s smile faded.
“You think this is inspirational?”
“No,” I said. “It’s evidence.”
His eyes narrowed.
That was when the vault speakers crackled.
Alessandro’s voice filled the room.
“Agent Cole, you should choose your last words better.”
Cole spun.
David smiled through tears.
“My wife was wearing a second wire.”
I lifted the small hospital ID clipped to my collar.
Not a badge.
A transmitter Luca had hidden inside it.
Everything had been broadcast.
Not to the internet.
To the federal internal affairs team Alessandro’s attorney had contacted.
To the state police.
To every honest prosecutor left in Maryland.
Sirens erupted through the building.
Cole’s men panicked.
Luca moved first.
Even wounded, he slammed one man into a shelf.
David tackled another.
Cole grabbed me.
I drove my heel into his foot and slammed my head back into his face.
Pain exploded through my skull.
He cursed and loosened his grip.
David reached him before he recovered.
They hit the floor hard.
Cole went for his gun.
I kicked it away.
The vault door burst open.
State police poured in.
“Hands!”
Cole screamed about authority.
About jurisdiction.
About classified operations.
No one listened.
They cuffed him facedown beside the boxes of stolen children.
I sank to the floor.
David crawled toward me.
“Cat?”
“I’m okay.”
He reached out, then stopped before touching me.
Asking without words.
This time, I took his hand.
Not forgiveness.
May you like
Not yet.
But survival.
