“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks, her voice trembling. “Why did you let me think you were fine?”

“Because I didn’t want you to see me like that,” I admit, my voice breaking. “I didn’t want you to see how weak I’d become.”

Her eyes flash with anger, cutting through the haze of vulnerability between us. “You think that was your decision to make?” she demands, sitting up straighter. “You don’t get to decide what I can or can’t handle, Cooper. You don’t get to push me away and call it protection.”

“I wasn’t protecting myself,” I snap, my own frustration bubbling to the surface. “I was protecting you. From them, from this life, from everything that comes with it.”

“And look where it got us,” she fires back. “You think I wouldn’t have stayed? That I wouldn’t have fought for you? You didn’t even give me the chance.”

Her words cut deeper than any knife. I look away, unable to meet her gaze. “I couldn’t risk it,” I say quietly. “You don’t know whatthey’re capable of, Zoey. If they thought for a second that you were a weakness of mine, they would have used you to destroy me.”

“I wasn’t your weakness,” she says, her voice softer now. “I was your partner. At least, I thought I was.”

The weight of her words settles over me like a lead blanket. She’s right—I never gave her a choice. I made decisions for both of us, thinking I was doing the right thing, and I can see now how much I hurt her in the process.

“I hated you for it,” she admits, her voice trembling. “For leaving me, for lying to me, for thinking I wasn’t strong enough to stand by your side. But no matter how much I tried to hate you, I couldn’t stop...”

She trails off, her gaze dropping to the floor.

“Couldn’t stop what?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

She looks up at me, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “Loving you.”

The air between us feels charged, every word hanging heavy with the weight of years of pain and longing. For a moment, neither of us speaks, the silence filled with all the things we can’t say.

“I don’t deserve it,” I finally manage, my voice cracking under the weight of her vulnerability. “After everything I’ve done, after everything I’ve put you through... I don’t deserve you.”

Zoey shakes her head, a bitter laugh escaping her lips. “It’s not about deserving, Cooper. It’s about choices. And you made yours when you decided to shut me out.”

Her words sting, but I can’t argue with them. She’s right. I chose this path, and I chose to walk it alone, even when she wanted to stand beside me.

The conversation leaves me raw,my emotions frayed and exposed in a way I’m not used to. I retreat to my office, needing space to process everything she said. But before I can even sit down, Marco bursts in, his face dark with urgency.

“We’ve got a problem,” he says, tossing a file onto my desk.

I open it, my blood running cold at the sight of the name written across the top: Dante Martinez.

One of my lieutenants. A man I’ve trusted for years.

“What is this?” I demand, flipping through the pages.

“It’s proof,” Marco says grimly. “Martinez has been feeding information to Rossi. He’s the one who gave them Zoey’s name.”

Rage surges through me, hot and blinding. I slam the file onto the desk, my hands trembling with fury. “Where is he?”

“Gone,” Marco replies. “Disappeared as soon as the attack started. But he won’t stay hidden for long.”

I clench my fists, my mind racing. A traitor in my ranks, someone I trusted with my life, and now Zoey’s safety is hanging by a thread because of it.

“We’ll find him,” I say through gritted teeth. “And when we do, I’ll make sure he pays for what he’s done.”

Marco nods, but I can see the unease in his eyes. He knows as well as I do that this betrayal runs deeper than one man. Anduntil we uncover the full extent of it, Zoey will never truly be safe.

As I stare at the file in front of me, one thing becomes clear: I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, even if it means tearing my organization apart from the inside.

15

ZOE