Chapter 2

Chapter Two She winked at me. Jumped off a roof. And smiled like she'd won. Who the hell does that? ADRIAN I don't lose people. It's not ego. It's training. Precision. Control. The rules are simple: follow the objective, secure the target, contain the situation. I've done it a hundred times. Until her. The footage from the rooftop flickered on my tablet. I watched it again. Slowed it down. Zoomed in. There she was-smirking, mocking, wild. Dangling from a drone like she'd planned the whole damn thing. "You gonna shoot me, handsome? That'll make paperwork awkward." And then she jumped. No fear. Just flight. "Run it again," I told the tech beside me. He gave me a look. "Sir, you've seen it eight times." "Then I'll see it nine." He hit play. I clenched my jaw and tried to ignore the twist in my gut. Not frustration. Not even failure. Curiosity. She'd looked right at me. Not past me. Not through me. At me. Like she knew who I was and still didn't give a damn. That should've pissed me off more. Instead, I wanted to know how she'd done it. How she'd slipped past a perimeter team, bypassed five layers of security, and left me standing on a rooftop like an idiot. Agent Sterling approached, folder in hand. "You're not going to let this go, are you?" "Would you?" She hesitated. "No. But I'd try harder not to look personally offended." "She stole a federal file." "And your pride." I didn't answer. She handed me the folder. "We ran facial recognition. No official match. But..." I opened the file. Alias: JINX Age: Unknown. Background: redacted. Affiliations: unconfirmed. Skills: classified. Of course. "You think she's working alone?" I asked. Sterling shook her head. "I think she works for herself. That's worse." "Why?" "Because it means she's unpredictable." I closed the file. "Put a trace on the drone she used. I want specs, fuel burn, every movement it's made in the last 72 hours." "Sir, we have actual suspects to track-" "Then add her to the list." Sterling didn't argue. She just walked off, muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like, He's already obsessed. She wasn't wrong. I looked at the screen again. Froze it on the moment Jinx smiled before she jumped. Who the hell smiles in a moment like that? I didn't know who she was. But I was going to find out.