Chapter 15 · The Night They Cut

"You built this." I kicked the safe house door shut behind me and shoved the tablet at Cade's chest. "Don't tell me you didn't know."

He caught it without looking. His jacket was still wet from the station fire, smoke streaked across his collar. He glanced at the screen, then back at me. No surprise. No denial.

"Mara."

"Don't." I stepped closer, close enough to see the cut on his jaw still bleeding. "That video. The one where I'm stitching you up like I've done it a hundred times. When was that?"

He set the tablet down on the table between us. Slow. Controlled. Like I was the explosive and he was trying not to set me off.

"Three years ago," he said.

Three years.

I laughed. It came out sharp, wrong. "So what, we were friends? Partners? You forgot to mention that part when you put a gun in my face."

"We weren't friends."

The way he said it made my stomach drop.

"Then what were we?"

He didn't answer. Just watched me with those cold gray eyes that suddenly didn't look cold at all. They looked tired.