Elin sighed into the line. “We’ll keep monitoring. You’ll know if anything changes.”
He ended the call, leaving only the thump of his uneven steps on the pavement and the hum of the world around him.
Sinner glanced at his phone. This was it—they were nearing the end. He should text Opal.
Unable to go through with it, he dropped his arm, phone tight in his grasp, and kept walking.
Twenty steps. Forty.
He stopped in his tracks and raked his hand through his hair in a display of agitation that was as real as it was contrived.
“Goddammit,”he bit off. He stopped and dashed his thumb over the screen.
It’s a done deal.
Their code for the trap being set. The mission was nearing the end.
Right when he and Opal were just getting started.
Just thinking about walking away made him feel like—after rolling with every other punch he ever took in his life—he might not recover from this one.
He strode faster, immersing himself in the stream of construction workers headed to the site.
The morning passed in a blur of motions he forced himself to execute. He worked when told, rested when it made sense. He let the foremen see him struggling with pain just enough to keep the story intact.
And through it all, he watched his phone for a response from Opal.
He saw that she read the text. She never replied…and her tracker wasmoving.
“Fuck!” He pressed his fist to his mouth to hold back a roar. Even if Sinner told her to abort the mission and turn back, she wouldn’t. He knew her.
By now, he probably looked as crazy as he felt inside, pacing just to keep himself from rushing to her. Every time he checked his phone, her dot moved. She crossed streets. Paused. Moved again.
His gut tightened when she drifted farther away from her office building, even though he knew that was her plan. She needed to act desperate and willing to cross lines.
By afternoon, his phone finally vibrated with her reply.
Copy.
Just that. No questions. No reactions.
It was exactly like her—and somehow that made it worse.
She was stubborn enough to dig in when backing down would’ve been safer.
He stood near the wall he’d helped build, not even seeing the shape.
“Hey, Mike!” his supervisor called out. “You gonna earn your pay today?”
Sinner tucked the phone away and returned to work, rubbing his back and popping a pill. Forcing his hands to shake and popping another. In between these gestures, he hauled materials until his muscles burned. At least the work burned off the restless energy coiling tight in his chest, but nothing could ease the terror rising inside him.
Opal was out there. And if his team was right, Cipher was watching.
Every step she took carried her closer to the center of the web.
Her dot slowed again, hovering near a cluster of side streets that made his fists ball.
Goddammit, she shouldn’t be in there alone. He should be with her.
