“Because I found out. Old memories of my life before the accident started to emerge. Flashes, lights, my real parents. Memories I couldn’t make sense of. For thirteen years, they ledme to believe I was Victoria Pollack. When the memories started resurfacing, I needed answers. So, I started digging around, carefully. That’s when I met Gabriel. A few days after his father’s death, he received an envelope with a flash drive. It was a video of his father saying that, if anything happened to him, Hearthstone would be responsible. He told him to find me and the others before it was too late. He also gave him a key to a vault that contained all the secrets of Hearthstone. We met, and he told me everything, including Hearthstone’s plan to have me killed because they knew my memories were resurfacing.”
“There are others like you?”
“A few. The last mission Hearthstone sent me on was in Yemen to recover a stolen shipment of chemical agents. They sent me into a refinery rigged with explosives. I was instructed to retrieve the briefcase with the agents and take out the people involved. Only, when I got there, there wasn’t a person in sight. No guards, nobody. That’s when I knew they had set me up. I was told to open the briefcase and make sure the agents were in there. But the thing was, the second I opened that briefcase, the refinery was set to explode. Gabriel hacked into the refinery’s system, buying me a couple of minutes to get the hell out. Once I did, he blew up the refinery, letting Hearthstone believe I opened the briefcase, and poof. Victoria Pollack was dead.”
“Jesus Christ, Paige. How did they know you were dead if there was no body?”
“Trust me. You don’t want to know,” I said.
I climbed out of bed, grabbed my wallet from my purse, and pulled out a one-dollar bill.
“Here.” I handed it to Parker.
“What is this for?” His brows furrowed.
“You’re my attorney now and can’t tell anyone, including your family, what I just told you.”
Chapter Eleven
Parker
I took the dollar bill and set it on the nightstand. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her close. Her story gripped me like no other. What they did to her was unfathomable. She didn’t choose this life. They chose it for her.
“I’m sorry they did that to you.” I pressed my lips against the top of her head. “But what I don’t understand is why you’re doing what you’re doing if the CIA thinks you're dead.”
“It’s my atonement.” She lifted her head and stared at me. “I’ve killed innocent people because the CIA told me they were bad and deserved to die. Yes, a majority were. But others weren’t after I found out the truth.”
“And Gabriel? How does he fit into all of this?” I asked.
“Gabriel is a genius. I’m talking about a bona fide tech genius. He’s been hacking and coding since he was five. His father was the financial architect for Hearthstone. His tech company funded black budget projects, cyber operations tied to Hearthstone, and experimental labs. He thought he was building a counterterrorism super database, not human weapons. When he found out what they were doing to children, he tried toshut it down, but they blackmailed him and had him under their control until they no longer needed him. After his father’s death, Gabriel knew Hearthstone would be coming for him, so he sold the tech company, faked his death, and built a fortress on a private island off the coast of Florida under the name Samuel King. He now dedicates his life to helping the innocent and taking down the CIA and the criminals and terrorists of the world.”
“You’re good, Paige. I’ve seen you in action. Why three years? Why didn’t you just go after Hearthstone sooner?”
“Because we needed time to gather intel. About six months after Gabriel’s father was murdered, Hearthstone disappeared, and a new program was put in its place a year later. A program called Project Nightfall. We needed to research it, find out more information, who was involved, and what they were doing. Project Nightfall is the evolution of Hearthstone.”
“If Hearthstone was shut down, how is Project Nightfall the evolution?” My brows furrowed.
“They didn’t shut Hearthstone down. They rebranded it. Buried it deeper. Made it darker. Hearthstone was about creating human weapons. Project Nightfall is about perfecting them, so their old memories don’t resurface.”
She climbed out of bed.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get something. I’ll be right back.”
She returned to the bedroom a few moments later and set two guns on the nightstand.
“Just in case.” She smiled, climbing back into bed.
“We’d better get some sleep,” I said, holding her close to me. “Goodnight, Paige.”
“Goodnight, Parker.”
I stared at the ceiling, her body wrapped in mine. Sleep wasn’t coming. It wasn’t even close. The words she spoke loopedin my head like a commercial that wouldn’t shut off. Programs like Hearthstone weren’t supposed to be real. I swallowed hard as my chest tightened. Paige wasn’t just dangerous. She was all alone and trusted me enough to tell me the truth about her. Now that I knew, really knew, who she was and what she survived, there was no going back.
My eyes flewopen as the light from the blinds filtered into the room. Glancing at the clock, it was seven a.m., and Paige wasn’t next to me. Climbing out of bed, I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.
“Good morning.” I smiled.