?Chapter 954:


    No sh drive. No papers. Not what she’d imagined. Instead—sealed ss vials,bels so faded they were basically unreadable. The liquid inside glowed a soft, unsettling shade of blue. Creepy as hell. But even without thebels, she knew exactly what she was looking at: raw toxin samples, just like the file described.


    Tucked alongside the vials was a thinb notebook. The handwriting inside was neat, elegant… but sharp. And familiar. It looked exactly like her mom’s.


    Ste’s stomach dropped. She swallowed hard and flipped it open, the shlight beam sliding over the pages as she skimmed. The deeper she read, the paler she got. Her hands were full-on shaking now.


    The notebook told the whole story—how her mom had discovered the warehouse was being used by the group to run horrific live trials using the toxin. Page after page detailed her fear, her guilt, the internal war over what to do… and finally, the decision to steal samples and run.


    Thest entry was dated exactly one week before her mom was hunted down and killed.


    Thest few lines in the notebook were scrawled in shaky handwriting, like the writer could barely hold the pen. Just reading them punched Ste in the gut with the raw fear and desperation her mom must’ve felt.


    “They’ve made me. Gotta get this to someone I trust. Can’t let them get their hands on it. This thing should’ve never seen daylight. All my mistakes…”


    Them?


    Who the hell was “them”?


    Was it Alonzo’s crew? Or was someone else in the game—someone Ste hadn’t even clocked yet?


    Her forehead creased with confusion, her whole body frozen as her brain tried to catch up. That was when it happened—a sharp whoosh sliced through the air. Too fast to react. Then came the sting. Right in her neck. It felt like a bug bite, but the burn was instant—hot and then oddly numb.


    g?lnσν???s?cóm is your escape


    She pped a hand to her throat and spun around. High above, a figure cloaked in ck, face masked, slipped back into the shadows on the second level.


    Someone had been there the whole time.


    They’d waited. Watched her read the entire journal. Then struck—on purpose. Sirens red in her mind. She tried to scream, but it was like her throat was stuffed with cotton. All that came out was a weak, muffled whimper. Dizziness mmed into her. The metal box and notebook slipped from her hands and ttered to the floor.


    Staggering backward, Ste reached for the pepper spray in her pocket, but her fingers wouldn’t cooperate—they felt like rubber.


    The shadow moved in. Quiet as death. Close now. His one visible eye was stone-cold. No emotion. Just staring her down like she was prey. Panic wed at her chest as she watched him scoop up the box and the journal.


    Then, slow and deliberate, he pulled a wicked-looking dagger from his belt.


    He wasn’t just here for the journal. He was here to finish her.


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