Page 29 of Tag

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Her shoulders slumped. “I know.”

Silence thickened the air.

Then she looked at me. “You’re everything I hoped you’d be.”

“I’m not here for your pride,” I said coldly. “I’m here for the truth.”

She nodded. Walked slowly to a locked filing cabinet and opened the bottom drawer.

Pulled out a flash drive. Set it on the desk.

“Everything,” she said. “Names. Financials. Contacts. Even the buyers. You take this, and you burn them all down.”

Faron stepped forward. “Why now?”

She looked at him—really looked. “Because I’m tired. Because I never stopped loving you. And because the people I tried to stop? They’re finally coming for me.”

The lights flickered.

The receptionist’s voice echoed down the hall.

“Ma’am? There’s a black van pulling up fast outside—”

Gunfire.

Glass shattered.

Tag’s voice roared from the hallway. “Down!”

I dove for my mother just as the window behind her exploded.

Faron covered us both, drawing his weapon.

And all I could think was—

We just found her.

And we might lose her all over again.

23

Tag

The first bullet hit the front door like a hammer through glass.

I shoved the receptionist down behind the counter and sprinted toward the back, heart slamming against my ribs. Aponi’s voice had just yelled from the office—

Then the window exploded.

I rounded the corner to find chaos.

Faron was already firing through the blown-out glass, calm and lethal. Aponi had her mother on the ground, shielding her with her body, blood running from a cut above her eyebrow.

“Two outside, north side!” I barked, taking cover by the doorway and firing at the dark figures moving through the rain.

“They’re not cartel,” Faron grunted. “Too coordinated.”

I caught a glimpse of body armor through the smoke.

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