Raven's POV
Raven's hand flies to the wire hidden under her dress.
"Don't bother." Dante's smile widens. "I jammed the signal the moment you walked in. Your friends can't hear us anymore. It's just you and me now."
Terror and rage war in her chest. In her ear, static hisses—Luna's voice is gone. She's alone with a man who might be a serial killer, and he knows everything.
"How did you—"
"Know about you?" Dante takes two champagne glasses from a passing waiter, offers her one. "Detective Morrison isn't as careful as he thinks. I've been monitoring his investigation for weeks. When he recruited you three days ago, I knew you'd end up here eventually."
Raven's legs shake but she refuses to run. "Are you going to kill me?"
"If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." He sips his champagne, watching her over the rim. "I'm curious why a disgraced detective would risk her life investigating a serial killer. What did Morrison promise you? Redemption? Justice? Your badge back?"
"He promised to help me prove my innocence."
"And you believed him?" Dante laughs—a dark, bitter sound. "Detective Morrison has his own agenda, Raven. He's using you as bait to draw me out. Did he mention that his daughter was killed by one of Commissioner Voss's protected criminals? That he's been hunting Voss for seven years? That he'd sacrifice anyone—including you—to get revenge?"
The words hit like punches. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Dante pulls out his phone, shows her a news article from seven years ago. "Sarah Morrison, age nineteen, murdered by convicted rapist Jacob Hale—released early through a deal arranged by Voss. Morrison's been obsessed ever since. You're just his latest weapon."
Raven stares at the photo of a young girl with Morrison's eyes. Her stomach turns. "He never told me..."
"Because he's using you. Just like Marcus used you. Just like Scarlett used you." Dante steps closer, his voice dropping. "Everyone in your life takes and takes and takes. When do you start taking back?"
"I'm not a killer."
"Neither am I."
The lie is so smooth she almost believes it. "You expect me to believe you're not the Reaper?"
"I expect you to use that brilliant detective mind." Dante gestures around the ballroom. "Look at these people. Rich. Powerful. Protected by the same corrupt system that destroyed you. Every single person in this room has hurt someone and walked away clean. That judge over there?" He nods toward an elderly man. "He freed twelve rapists last year. The woman in red? She runs sweatshops where children die. The CEO by the window? He dumped toxic waste that gave an entire neighborhood cancer."
Raven follows his gaze, seeing the glamorous crowd with new eyes.
"The law protects them," Dante continues. "Voss protects them. They buy their freedom while people like you—people who try to do the right thing—get crushed. So tell me, Detective, when the system is broken, when justice is for sale, what should good people do?"
"Not murder."
"Then what? Vote? Protest? Hope the corrupt elite suddenly grow consciences?" His steel-blue eyes burn into hers. "I watched my family die when I was twelve. The man who killed them walked free because he paid the right people. I spent twenty years watching monsters escape punishment while innocent people suffered. At what point does inaction become complicity?"
Raven's throat tightens. She knows he's manipulating her, twisting her anger and pain into something dark. But part of her—the part that fantasizes about making Marcus and Scarlett pay—whispers that he's right.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asks.
"Because you're standing at a crossroads, Raven Blackwell." Dante sets down his glass. "You can keep believing in a system that failed you. Keep trusting people like Morrison who see you as a tool. Keep being a victim. Or—" He extends his hand again. "You can choose something different."
"Different how?"
"Work for me. Real work, not undercover investigation. I need someone with your skills, your mind, your instincts. Someone who understands what it means to be betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect you."
"You want me to work for a serial killer?"
"I want you to work for someone who sees your value. Who won't use you and discard you." His voice softens dangerously. "I know everything about you, Raven. Your childhood. Your cases. The way Marcus manipulated you for months. How Scarlett hated you since you were children. Your mother's favorite. Your father's pride. Until you became their shame."
Tears burn her eyes. "Stop."
"Why? Because the truth hurts?" Dante's hand drops but his gaze doesn't waver. "I also know you have nowhere to go. No job. No family. No friends except a hacker who breaks laws for fun. Morrison will throw you away the moment you stop being useful. But I won't."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because unlike everyone else in your life, I'm being honest. I'm not pretending to be your savior or mentor or friend. I'm offering you a transaction: your skills for my protection and resources. You help me, I help you destroy Marcus and Scarlett. Fair exchange."
Raven's mind races. Everything he's saying could be lies designed to recruit her. Or it could be the first honest thing anyone's said to her in months.
"What exactly would I be helping you do?"
Dante's smile returns. "That depends. Are you asking as an undercover detective trying to catch me? Or as a woman who wants revenge on the people who destroyed her life?"
Before she can answer, Luna's voice suddenly crackles back in her ear—panicked and urgent: "Raven! Morrison just got arrested! SWAT team raided the warehouse—someone tipped off Voss that we were investigating him! They're looking for you too! You need to run NOW!"
Raven's blood turns to ice. She looks at Dante, who's watching her with knowing eyes.
"I'm guessing you just heard something interesting," he says calmly.
"Morrison's been arrested. They're coming for me."
"Of course they are. Voss can't let witnesses live." Dante pulls out his phone, types something. "You have two choices. Run now and they'll hunt you down within hours. Or trust me."
"Trust a serial killer?"
"Trust someone who can make you disappear until we're ready to fight back." He holds out his hand one more time. "Last chance, Detective. Choose."
Sirens wail outside the hotel—distant but getting closer.
Raven looks at Dante's outstretched hand. At the ballroom doors where police will burst through any moment. At her reflection in a nearby mirror—broken, desperate, out of options.
Luna screams in her ear: "Raven, please! Run! Don't trust him!"
But Raven remembers Marcus's betrayal. Scarlett's lies. Her mother's rejection. Morrison's manipulation. Every person who used her and threw her away.
Maybe it's time to stop trusting the good guys.
She takes Dante's hand.
His grip is iron-strong as he pulls her close. "Smart girl. Now hold on."
He leads her through a side door she didn't notice, into a service corridor. They run past shocked staff, down stairs, through a kitchen. Behind them, shouts echo—police flooding the hotel.
They burst into an underground parking garage where a black car waits, engine running. Adrian Cross—Dante's head of security—sits in the driver's seat, expressionless.
Dante opens the back door, practically throws Raven inside, and slides in after her.
"Go," he orders.
The car peels out as police cars screech into the parking garage entrance. Adrian drives like a madman, taking corners that make Raven's stomach flip, weaving through traffic.
"Where are we going?" she gasps.
Dante looks at her with those terrifying steel-blue eyes. "Somewhere Voss can't reach you. Somewhere you'll be mine."
"Yours?"
"You made your choice, Raven. You took my hand. That means you're under my protection now." His smile is sharp and possessive. "And I always protect what's mine."
The car plunges into a tunnel, swallowing them in darkness.
In the last second before her wire dies completely, Raven hears Luna's voice—broken and crying: "Please be alive. Please. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Then static.
Then nothing.