My face lights up. “That’s really cool. I’ve always admired what Strike does. The scholarship fund especially—it’s so important.”
“Couldn’t agree more.” Her smile is all warm approval, but she’s also eyeing me carefully, as though assessing. “Though, I admit, I didn’t just stumble upon you. I sought you out for a reason.”
My brows lift in surprise. “Me? Why?”
“Why are you here, Josie?” she asks, her voice taking on a curious tone, but there’s an edge beneath the question, like she already knows the answer. I shuffle my feet, trying to collect my thoughts.
“My best friend, Honor—she’s Strike’s girlfriend—is actually showcasing her art tonight to raise money for Turning Point. I’m here to support her,” I say as I gesture toward the pieces scattered around the gallery.
“And that’s a noble thing, to support your friend,” Veronica agrees.
“I guess…If you know Strike, you know Axe MacKenzie, of course,” I add. I smile faintly at his name. “It’s been a rough week for me. I’m helping him with a project, and I think that seeing him tonight will help me feel focused again.”
“Axe MacKenzie, yes.” Her tone shifts. “You must be careful, Josie.”
“Careful?” My impulse is to laugh, but Veronica looks dead serious. She presses her lips together as if she’s about to share something she’d rather not reveal. “I sought you out tonight because you need to know that Axe is…complicated. You work for him, yes?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“There are things you may not know about him. His business dealings aren’t always what they seem. He has a side to him—and his business—that could be very dangerous for a young woman like you.”
I step back from her. “What are you talking about? Dangerous how?”
Veronica’s expression is calm, almost too calm. “Axe MacKenzie doesn’t just run a tech empire, my dear. He’s also involved in…darker ventures.”
“That can’t be right,” I say. “You’re mistaken.”
“I’m afraid she’s not,” a familiar voice cuts in. I turn and find Niles standing there, dressed in an impeccable navy suit with a shirt that’s open one button too far, holding out two champagne flutes. I take one gratefully and swallow it down fast. I need some liquid courage. Veronica takes the other and gives Niles the same airy double kiss before he turns back to face me. “Hello, Josie-Jo. I hate to speak out of turn, but it’s true that a lot of these ultra-wealthy types have some very, very dark secrets.”
“Axe MacKenzie is an animal,” Veronica says, her voice firm. It’s as if seeing Niles has given her an extra measure of confidence to speak her mind. “He killed one of his rival associates at one of his own corporate events—the House of Horrors, I believe it was called. Beat the man to death in front of a crowd while pretending it was some macabre performance. A twisted joke.” She pauses, her eyes dark with knowing. “And, of course, he walked away untouched. Men like Axe MacKenzie always do.”
My knees almost buckle as flashes of that night at Ravenswood hit me—the blood and bile, the very real smell of piss, the man hanging by his wrists, barely conscious. A wave of fear and nausea overtakes me when I remember Strike was right next to Axe in that torture room. Does Honor know? She didn’t seem particularly scared that night.
“Why are you both telling me this?” I ask. Because this isn’t some casual warning—it’s more like some kind of weird intervention, like they’ve both arranged this meeting to deliberately confront me. I feel completely blindsided. Veronica Petrov even knew my name.
Across the room, Honor is signing autographs for all her fans. She might as well be in a different zip code. Shit.
“Josie, you need to listen to me,” says Niles, his fingers locking onto my arm, his eyes filled with a seriousness that chills me to the core. “You’re deep into something much bigger than you realize.” His tone drops to almost a growl. “And I suspect you’re in grave danger.”
“In what way?” It’s all I can do not to shake off his touch.
“She’s the One? It’s not what it seems. It’s a multimillion-dollar front for a sex trafficking empire.” He pauses, his eyes narrowing.
“I don’t understand.” I truly cannot process this.A sex trafficking empire?It feels almost comical. “Not Axe. Not my Axe.”
Veronica is eyeing me with an expression that feels close to pity. As if she can’t quite believe how naive I am. That it waspatheticof me to use the wordmy. “We don’t have time to spell out the specifics, but you have to trust us on this, Josie. None of this is what you think it is.”
“I don’t know what I think,” I whisper through a flash of panic. Mostly what I’m thinking is that this is even more disturbing than that night at Axe’s House of Horrors, when I tricked myself into believing that what I saw with my own eyes wasn’t real.
“You are, unfortunately, the perfect choice,” says Veronica. “A gorgeous thing like you. Naive and innocent. The perfect pick.”
“No, no, I’m not…it wasn’t…that’s not what—”
“My team has been surveilling MacKenzie’s actions for months,” says Niles. “I didn’t just stumble into Grace & Honor that day—I was keeping tabs. Trying to protect you. Same reason I was at that convention.”
“Team? Whatteam?”
“Josie, we’re CIA.” Niles pulls a sleek black phone from his pocket. He holds it up and, with a swipe, presents a QR code. “Scan it. It’ll take you to my credentials, agency-issued.”
