Page 452 of Broken Oath

Now I’m coming for her.

This time, I won’t be too far away.

56

EVIE

Ichange cars twice.

Jackets once.

I leave my phone in the trunk of a taxi heading toward Baltimore.

And still, I know they’re following me.

Not because I can see them.

Because I can’t.

The men Graves sent are too disciplined to drive close, stare too long, or make obvious mistakes.

But I’ve spent years studying patterns.

A dark SUV appearing three times in forty minutes isn’t a coincidence.

Neither is the silver sedan that takes its place after I cross into Alexandria.

I pull the borrowed car into the underground garage beneath my old apartment building.

Borrowed is generous.

The young man who left it running outside the convenience store will report it stolen as soon as he notices it’s gone.

I’m hoping Graves notices first.

The garage smells like oil, damp concrete, and rainwater. Overhead lights flicker, leaving deep pools of shadow between the parked vehicles.

I park near the back wall and kill the engine.

For several seconds, I don’t move.

My hand rests on the pistol beneath my coat.

I was trained for fieldwork before I became an analyst.

I know how to shoot.

How to detect surveillance.

How to hurt someone badly enough to escape.

But I’m not Shadow Division.

If Graves’s people find me, they won’t drag me back to Langley for questioning. They’ll put a bullet in my skull and leave evidence proving I was a foreign asset.

By morning, every person who ever knew me will believe I betrayed my country.

My fingers tighten around the pistol.