Chapter 6 · Marked Registry - Chapter 6: Still Breathing

The drive weighs nothing. Feels like it should weigh more.

Ella turns it over in her hand, the casing cracked down one side, a smear of something dark dried into the plastic. Blood, maybe. She doesn't want to think about whose. Cain's still standing by the window, shoulders tight, like he's waiting for her to say something or bolt or both.

"Mia hid this," Ella says. Not a question.

"Evidence locker. Sub-level three. She logged it two days before she disappeared." His voice is flat. No emotion, no tells. "No one's touched it since."

Ella closes her fist around the drive. "Why didn't you check it?"

"I did."

She looks up.

"It's encrypted," Cain says. "Bureau-grade. I can't crack it without flagging the system, and if I flag the system, Horne knows."

"So you're giving it to me."

"You're not in the system yet. You've got seventy-two hours before you are." He finally turns, and his eyes are colder than she's ever seen them. "Use them."

She wants to throw the drive at his face.