We hold eye contact, agreeing to let the blame pass between us.
Jules turns to me. “You never looked into John Doe from poker? You’ve been hooking up with him for a while. Luna gave us Hudson’s file.”
She’s calling me out, and I don’t like it. I throw up my hands. “We vetted Hudson Cross when Luna joined his unit, like five years ago! I only met him last year. You know what I’m like after a takedown. I’m half-manic, half-feral. The club’s my off switch. I don’t exactly have a filing system when I’m Jane Doe.” I rake my hands through my hair. “Shit. I’m going to have to rethink how I unwind.”
Luna and Jules exchange a concerned look, but they don’t press. “And why the hell is Hudson here with Enzo?” Jules asks. “None of our research showed those two were connected.”
“Yeah, but with a man on the inside, there wouldn’t be a record, would there? They probably had Hudson in play before we even arrived in DC. Only way it could have worked,” Luna says with her arms crossed, clearly unnerved. Her fingers tap against her arm.
“What do we do?” I ask.
Luna sighs. “We might get away with telling them the bare minimum.”
“Excuse me? Bare minimum ofwhat? The operation we’ve been working on for over a decade? What are you even talking about? You think we can trust them?” I huff.
Luna and Jules exchange a glance. “Maybe,” they say together.
They’ve lost their damned minds. “Are you kidding me? Theysaw the boards, they’re probably memorizing them right now. The names, the intel. You think those men just walk away from that? You know they won’t.”
Jules exhales, rubbing her temples. “Look, I’m not talking full disclosure, obviously. I’m saying strategic honesty. Enzo is not involved in trafficking. We’ve confirmed it a hundred times. He moved their business away from sex work when his parents died. And it’s widely known that he doesn’t take hits on women or children. He’s not our enemy. If he knowswhythese men were targeted, he might let it go.”
Luna agrees. “Hudson worked in anti-trafficking prior to his promotion to organized crime.”
I laugh, short and bitter. “So, what? That makes them heroes or something? Jesus.”
“Focus,” Jules warns.
“I am focused. You two are talking about trusting three men who’ve seen us unmasked. Just the fact that they’ve seen us together is a huge fucking problem. And you want to hand them a partial confession and hope they…what? Walk away?”
“Control,” Jules says evenly. “We decide what story they get. And we control their next steps. They don't want to be exposed any more than we do.”
“Pippa, we seriously can’t kill them,” Luna adds. “I wasn’t just saying that.”
“We’ve killed much more dangerous men than them,” I retort. I can’t believe they are considering sharinganythingabout our plans with these men.Am I in an alternate reality right now? Did I jump timelines?I am beginning to feel fucking unhinged.
Luna steps closer. “Yes, we’ve killed predators, Pippa. Would you really be okay crossing the line into taking out innocent people from our real lives?”
“No man is truly innocent.” I scoff.
Luna continues, “If we give them nothing, they’ll dig on their own. They won’t let this go.”
“She’s right,” Jules agrees. “We tell them enough to stop them from asking questions. And then we keep them out of our way.”
“What if I whip up some sort of memory-blocking toxin?” I ask, looking around my lab, grasping at straws.
Jules and Luna just look at me with blank stares.
I take a deep, cleansing breath. “Fine. But the second they start sniffing around, we disappear. No hesitation. If we can’t take them out, we protect ourselves. We have protocol on this for a reason.”
“We go with the Regina Phalange protocol,” Luna affirms, voice steady.
“No personal links. No family ties. No mention of Maribel,” I confirm.
“Or Dad,” Jules adds.
“Never Dad. To anyone,” I whisper.
Jules glances between us, grounding us again. “We share just enough. Nothing more.”
