Chapter 3
The wind in Arcadia Bay was particularly strong these days.
Or perhaps it was just this abandoned building I was in, letting drafts in from every corner.
In the distance, I could faintly hear the sounds of punching and kicking, but someone beside me offered a cigarette.
I pushed it away.
“Julian doesn’t like me smoking.”
…
“Find out everything you can about the girl Julian brought back last night.”
I turned to the man beside me.
He’d been with me since I joined the organization. They called him Leo Hayes, for his rank, but I usually called him Leo. He’d been with me so long, he’d started saying things others wouldn’t dare.
“Anya, sigh…”
“You’re the smartest woman I know.”
“So, you should understand that love, that kind of thing, shouldn’t be a part of our lives.”
“…”
He stood beside me, hands shoved in his pockets, watching the desolate, ruined lot with me.
“Which one of us hasn’t got blood on our hands?”
“The boss might be going legit now, but he’ll never marry someone with blood on their hands like us.”
“We’ve all taken the fall for him, and he treats us well for it, sure. But a proper, legitimate place in his life? A title? That’s never going to happen…”
Yes, Julian trusted me so deeply, pampered me so much all these years, precisely because I’d taken the fall for him.
Over the years, the blood on my hands was substantial enough that sometimes, in the dead of night, when I looked at myself, I saw the vengeful spirits coming for me.
Sometimes, I even forgot my true identity.
An undercover agent, a nail driven deep into the dark, a long, deadly fuse.
Thirteen years of my life, bought with the blood of my comrades.
No one came to the abandoned building, and the sounds of fighting had long since stopped.
I looked up, gazing at the bright white clouds against the clear sky.
I didn’t care how many women Julian had; I was only afraid.
Afraid that decades of careful preparation would be ruined by an unpredictable factor.
“Come on, let’s go meet the little girl he brought back.”
I turned to the man behind me.