Dante didn’t look away. “She didn’t make it.” The words landed with no cushioning.
Shannon blinked once, then again, slower the second time. Her whole face seemed to lose structure; her mouth parted with no sound. “She was fine,” she said, barely audible. “She was right there.”
“I know.”
“She passed out. I tried to get her down.”
“You did,” Dante said softly. “You got her on the ground.”
Shannon didn’t cry. She just lay there, eyes open, as if still trying to reject what she knew. Dante didn’t fill the silence.
Finally, her voice came, raw and breaking, “How?”
He was quiet a moment. Then he answered, “She was drugged.”
Her mouth moved. She didn't seem to believe it. “No. That’s not… She passed out. It wasn’t… It couldn’t…”
“It was Krueger,” he said, voice low and steady. “Bravo Team confirmed it.”
Her lips parted, a breath catching somewhere between horror and fury. “He killed her?”
Dante leaned forward, his forehead brushing hers. “You’re alive,” he whispered. “You’re alive, and we’re going to get him for both of you.”
Shannon turned her face slightly into his touch. She still didn’t cry. But her whole body shook with a quiet, hollow tremble that didn’t stop.
And Dante just held her.
TWENTY-SEVEN
CID INTERVIEW ROOM 3 – 1948 HOURS
The room was hot—not just warm. It was oppressive—made that way deliberately. The single light above the steel table buzzed softly, casting hard shadows down Krueger’s cheekbones.
He sat chained at the table. No uniform now. Just a plain black shirt stretched over his shoulders. His smirk was gone, but his eyes still burned.
Across from him, Zach Wentworth sat, calm and motionless, a file open in front of him. A glass of water stayed untouched. He was the type of predator that didn’t show his teeth until it was too late.
“You planned this,” Zach said flatly. “Every detail. Drug, delivery, mechanical entry, surveillance blind spots. No way you acted alone.”
Krueger’s lip curled. “You’re assigning a lot of meaning to one bad day and one mouthy woman.”
Zach leaned in, voice quiet and deadly. “But you didn’t kill just one. Mara Esten died gasping because you drugged her inthe dark. Shannon almost bled out after trying to stop the bird from breaking open like a can. You weren’t just playing God. You were trying to erase them. You weren’t improvising. You were working a strategy.”
Krueger didn’t flinch, but something flickered in his expression. Something almost delighted. “You really don’t get it, do you?” He leaned forward, chains scraping the table. “You want me to say it was personal. I get that. You want righteous. Emotional. But Mara Esten?” He shook his head. “She wasn’t the point. She was the mechanism.”
Zach said nothing.
Krueger’s grin returned, slow and cruel. “You think this is only about a woman? This was leverage. You know what I think? I think you already suspect this is bigger. You’re just hoping I’m dumb enough to spell it out for you.”
Zach’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t blink. “You’re the one in cuffs. Talk or rot.”
Krueger leaned forward. “This is where we can help each other.”
Zach closed the file. His white brow arched. The room seemed to hold its breath.
Krueger’s eyes glittered. “Mara was a test, a controlled variable.” He smiled evilly. “And sweet Shannon. That hot piece of tail got in the way. I didn’t want things to get messy, but by the time Shannon got involved, my plan was running.”
“Running where?”
