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“That’s just it. You’re going to need our system, so I would need you to come here to the Rogue compound. We’re just outside Austin. The data’s here, the team’s here, the infrastructure’s here.” A pause. “I know what I’m asking, Cass. I know you like to work alone. I know it’s a lot. I can set you up in a private room and a mostly private workspace.”

Cassandra grimaced. That wouldn’t be enough. Fallon knew about Cassandra’s debilitating migraines but not the craziness that caused it.

But headaches didn’t matter in situations like this.

“When do you need me?”

“As soon as you can get here.”

“Tomorrow.”

There was a moment of silence on Fallon’s end. “Are you sure, Cass?”

“It’s kids, Fallon. I’ll deal with my shit.”

A beat. Then, quietly, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t done anything.”

“You said yes. That’s enough for now. And hey, we’ll finally get to meet face-to-face.”

Three years of working together taking down some of the most vile assholes out there—people who thought they were above the law and could prey on those weaker than them. There was no way to stop them all, but Fallon and Cassandra had certainly done their part.

Although, to be honest, mostly Fallon. Cassandra had just been tech support.

In all that time, they’d never met in person. That had been safer for both of them and allowed Cassandra to hide the crazy. Best friends, just never in the same room together. It had worked for both of them.

But if being around others was the best and quickest way to help these children, Cass wasn’t going to be a little bitch about it. She’d somehow make it work.

“Send me everything you can. I want to start looking at the data tonight.”

“I’ll send it within the hour.”

They hung up. Cassandra walked over to the window, holding her phone against her chest.

Her apartment was quiet. Monitors glowing in the other room. Cold coffee on the filing cabinet. Two machines humming on a desk made from a door. The small, dark, carefully built world where she could exist without it costing her anything.

She was about to leave all of it.

She set the phone on the counter and went to pack.

Chapter 3

The Rogue compound was more open and looked easier to navigate than she expected.

Cassandra had braced for something that would chew her up the second she stepped out of the car. Some sort of military installation crawling with people, no room to breathe. What she got instead was gravel paths spaced wide between low buildings, enough open sky that the air didn’t press in.

The Texas Hill Country stretched out around the property like it had nowhere particular to be. A few people moved around the compound, but all walking with such purpose wherever they were going that she couldn’t really focus on them anyway.

Fallon’s arm kept brushing hers as they walked. Three years of phone calls and late-night strategy sessions filtered through a laptop screen, and now her best friend occupied actual physical space beside her. Warm, solid, close enough to touch. Cassandra had been fighting the urge to reach over and poke her just to confirm she wasn’t going to pixelate and vanish.

Then a woman turned a corner and passed them heading the opposite direction. Cassandra’s brain latched on before she could stop it.

Pressed shirt, careful creases, but one cuff was buttoned and the other was loose, pushed up the forearm. Hair pinned back in a rush, one piece already falling. The earring. One in, the other ear bare.

Each detail fed the next, Cassandra’s brain chasing the connections, the narrative already forming: this was someone who had started her morning with care and been knocked off course partway through.

Cassandra’s eyes were already moving to the coffee cup in the woman’s hand, full to the brim, untouched. She still hadn’t recovered from whatever had happened this morning, too off-balance to have even taken a sip.