Bronwyn forced herself to breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. The way she did before making an incision.
"What do you want, Jennings?" Her voice was ice.
Jennings looked at her, his eyes traveling down her body with a familiarity that made her skin crawl. "I want you to remember your place. You were a project. An amusing diversion. You seem to have forgotten that."
"You're engaged," she said. "To my cousin."
"Tiffany is a merger," Jennings waved his hand dismissively. "She's boring. You... you have fire. It's a shame that fire is attached to such a worthless background."
"I would rather die," Bronwyn said.
Jennings' smile vanished. "Then watch Leo go to prison. I have the best lawyers in the city. We'll bury him."
A man in a sharp grey suit walked over to them. He handed Jennings a file folder.
"Mr. Bowen," the lawyer said, not even glancing at Bronwyn. "The arraignment judge has set bail. We argued for the maximum due to the flight risk and the severity of the injury."
"How much?" Bronwyn asked.
The lawyer looked at her then, his eyes flat. "Fifty thousand dollars."
Bronwyn felt the floor drop out from under her. She had four thousand dollars in her savings account. Maybe five if she sold her car.
Fifty thousand was impossible.
Jennings tapped the folder against his palm. "If you change your mind, my office will accept your signature at any time."
He turned and walked out, his lawyer trailing behind him like a shark's pilot fish.
A young female officer approached Bronwyn. She looked sympathetic. "You can see him for five minutes."
Bronwyn followed her into a small holding room. Leo was sitting at a metal table, his hands cuffed. His face was bruised, his lip split.
"Bron," he whispered. He looked so young. "I'm sorry. I saw the picture... I just saw red."
Bronwyn sat down and reached across the table, gripping his hands. "Don't apologize. I'm going to get you out."
Leo shook his head. "Don't ask him. Please, Bron. Don't beg him. I'd rather rot in here."
"I won't," she promised. "I'll find a lawyer. A real one."
The officer knocked on the door. "Time's up."
Bronwyn walked out of the precinct into the blinding afternoon sun. She pulled out her phone and called Chloe again.
"Put your brother on," Bronwyn said. "I know he's a defense attorney."
There was a muffled conversation on the other end. Then Chloe came back on.
"Bron... he says he can't."
"Why?"
"The Bowen family made calls," Chloe whispered. "They've blackballed the case. He says no firm in New York will touch it. It's a conflict of interest trap."
Bronwyn lowered the phone.
She was blocked. Everywhere.
She scrolled through her contacts. Desperation clawed at her throat. Her thumb hovered over a picture she had saved five years ago. A blurry shot of a man's back.
The contact was simply labeled 'Ghost'. Her own call sign in a world she had tried to escape.
No. She couldn't. That world was worse than Jennings. It was a different kind of monster.
A sleek black sedan pulled up to the curb right in front of her. The back window rolled down.
Victoria Bowen sat inside. Jennings' mother. She wore oversized sunglasses and a look of permanent disdain.
"Mrs. Bowen," Bronwyn said, stiffening.
"Get in," Victoria said. "We need to talk."
