Chapter 18 · Mara's Dead Account

"The ledger wrote your name." I don't let her past the door. "Right under the subway coordinates. You want to tell me why?"

Mara's hand drops from the doorframe. "Move."

"Answer first."

"I said move, Jace."

"And I said the ledger doesn't lie." I hold up my wrist. The black mark is still warm, still pulsing. "You told me you never heard of that station. The city says different."

Her jaw tightens. "The city says a lot of things."

"Yeah, and it just put you on the same page as Ephraim Slate." I step closer. "So either you know him, or you know what he's hiding. Which one gets me killed faster?"

She shoves past me into the room. "Neither if you shut up and listen."

"I'm listening."

Mara stops in the middle of the floor, back to me, shoulders tight. "You think I came here clean?"

"I think you came here with a gun and a corporate audit file. Clean's got nothing to do with it."

She turns. Her face is locked down hard, but her hand's shaking. Just a tremor. Enough. "Three years ago I tracked a payout through six shell accounts. It ended at that station.