She wasn’t the same.
So now what?
She didn’t know, but she wanted to know. With her car still in the shop, she was forced to walk instead of driving to let her mind work through the problem.
It wasn’t long before her destination appeared in front of her. A tiny city park that was little more than a manicured patch of grass, a small stand of trees, and three cement benches planted in a neat row.
She descended the steps from the street, gazing intently at the river rolling by. Its glittery surface caught the city’s lights and refracted them into shards.
There’s a metaphor there, she thought with a sad snort. Something about how things can be whole and broken at the same time.
After sinking onto the bench closest to her, she sighed and let the tension slump out of her shoulders.
Two weeks. That’s all it had been.
Two weeks since her life had been upended, rearranged, ripped open, and stitched back together again into something new. Something she didn’t recognize. Something she didn’t even really want.
But it wasn’t like this was the first time she’d had to start over. It wasn’t like she’d never had her illusion stripped from her, never stared into a future that was a foggy unknown.
She’d survived the upheaval before.
She’d survive it again and?—
A sudden shiver raced down her spine despite the perfect weather. The hairs on her arms lifted. Her pulse stumbled.
She raised her chin slowly, deliberately. Hoping she appeared casual as she scanned the grass, the trees, the deep shadows that avoided the reach of the lampposts’ lights.
A couple kissed beside a parked car up on the street. A jogger passed by in neon shorts and a reflective vest. A private pleasure boat glided across the water, lit up like a floating bar and bumping with club music. Utz, utz, utz.
Ordinary.
All perfectly ordinary.
And yet…
Someone was watching her. The sensation clung to her like spider-silk, fine and cloying.
Automatically, her hand dipped into her purse. Pulling out her phone, she thumbed on the screen and brought up Hew’s contact.
Two weeks ago, he’d been her safe place. Her rock.
Now? There was caution in his eyes when he looked at her. Wariness in his voice when he spoke to her and?—
There it is again.
That crawling awareness. Stronger this time. Pressing hard against the back of her skull so that her spine snapped straight and her shoulder blades hitched together.
She started to stand, but stopped when someone slid onto the bench beside her and the cold, unmistakable kiss of a gun barrel jabbed into her side.
“Easy,” came a low voice. Feminine. Deadly. Familiar. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need you to be quiet.”
Sabrina bit her tongue to keep from screaming.
The hair color was different. Platinum blond had been replaced by a deep, cherry red. But there was no mistaking that jaw’s cruel angle or that tone that was always edged in ice.
Black Widow.
Sabrina’s phone was still in her hand, still open to Hew’s number. Keeping it low, hiding it from the assassin, Sabrina tapped out a single word in the message field.
