Evelyn knew something was off the moment she stepped into her apartment.
The air was wrong—too still. A shadow clung to the corners of the room like fog that refused to lift. She closed the door quietly, fingers brushing the taser Wolfe had trained her to keep close.
Her window was unlocked.
She never left it that way.
She moved slowly. Deliberate. Every breath calculated.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown Number.
The message lit her screen:
"You should've stayed out of it."
Attached was a photo.
Her and Wolfe.
Taken from a rooftop—at night. Private. Intimate.
Her blood went cold.
She pivoted silently, reaching for the weapon stashed in a hollowed-out bookcase. The shadows stirred.
A voice cut through the silence like a blade.
"Still fast. That's good."
She spun.
And froze.
Jacob Vance stepped out of the shadows like a ghost resurrected.
Six years ago, he'd vanished. Her mentor. Her handler. The man who'd trained her to be invisible. The man who'd taught her to disappear.
She had grieved him.
And now, he stood in her living room like nothing had changed.
"Hello, Evelyn."
She aimed the taser. "Say one word I don't like and you'll leave here paralyzed."
His hands rose, calm. "Relax. If I wanted you dead, you'd already be a headline."
"Try me," she said coldly.
He smiled faintly. "I'm not your enemy."
"You're not supposed to be alive."
"And yet… here I am. And you are far too entangled in something that was never yours to touch."
She narrowed her eyes. "Parallax?"
He stepped closer. "You think that's the whole game? That file was built to monitor the cancer at the top of the world. Wolfe and Rhys were just tools."
"Then who's holding the scalpel now?"
He tilted his head. "You already know the answer. The same people who want Wolfe gone. Who built HYDRA. Who decided which kings fall and which queens rise."
She didn't move. Didn't flinch.
"What do they want with me?"
"You're leverage. Access. Disruption. If they control you, they control Wolfe. And if they control Wolfe…" He let the silence speak.
She said nothing.
Vance glanced at her bookshelf—his tone gentling. "I taught you to stay clean, Evelyn. To vanish. You've forgotten the rule."
"I haven't," she whispered. "I've just outgrown it."
His gaze darkened. "Then make your choice. Come with me now—I'll extract you. Start fresh. Clean slate. Or stay. And when the Tower falls, you'll fall with it."
Her hand trembled.
But her voice didn't.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Vance nodded once. "Then you've chosen the fire."
He turned and vanished through the window before she could say another word.
Like a ghost.
---
Back at the Tower, Wolfe watched the encrypted feed.
He'd seen everything.
Every word.
Every choice.
When Evelyn returned hours later, he was waiting in the penthouse, hands clenched behind his back.
"You should've told me," he said.
"I handled it."
"You survived it. That's not the same."
She moved to him. "You watched?"
"I watched you choose me. That's the last time I let you stand alone."
Her voice softened. "Then we fight this together."
He met her gaze.
"No more secrets."
And this time, they both meant it.