Bonus Zodiac Tactical Epilogue
CODE NAME: LEO
Isaac Baxter had been to enough of these events during his career with Zodiac Tactical to know that the real action never happened in the ballroom.
The Whitmore Estate glittered tonight, all crystal chandeliers and champagne towers and women dripping in jewelry worth more than most people’s houses. A charity auction for children’s literacy—or was it pediatric cancer? He’d stopped keeping track. The causes changed; the crowd never did.
But it wasn’t the crowd who interested him tonight. It was her.
He adjusted his position near the east corridor, scanning faces with practiced ease.
Three events in two months. Three times she’d slipped through his fingers like water.
The first time, he hadn’t even known she existed until the Ashford woman started screaming about her missing bracelet.
The second time, he’d caught a glimpse—dark hair, a flash of movement, gone before he could react.
The third time, he’d almost had her. Close enough to see her eyes. Close enough to watch her smile at him before she disappeared through a window that should have been alarmed.
Tonight would be different. He’d studied her patterns, her timing, the type of events she targeted. She liked historic venues with multiple exit points. She liked crowds thick enough to disappear into.
She liked nights exactly like this one.
Isaac felt the familiar hum of anticipation low in his chest. Somewhere in this glittering mass of old money and older grudges, she was here. He knew it the way he knew his own heartbeat.
He just had to find her.
His gaze swept the room again—and stopped.
She stood near the silent auction tables, champagne flute in hand, nodding politely at something a silver-haired man was saying.
Black dress, elegant but not flashy. Hair swept up, exposing the line of her neck.
She looked like she belonged here. She looked like every other bored socialite killing time until the main event.
But she wasn’t looking at the man talking to her. She was looking at the room. Reading it. Mapping exits and sight lines and the position of every security guard.
Including him.
Their eyes met for a fraction of a second. Something flickered across her face—recognition, calculation, a hint of something that might have been pleasure—before she returned her attention to her companion.
Isaac was already moving.
He kept his pace casual, just another guest drifting through the crowd. She excused herself from the silver-haired man and glided toward the bar. Isaac adjusted his trajectory. She changed direction, heading for the terrace. He cut left to intercept.
They moved through the ballroom like partners in a dance, each anticipating the other’s steps. She was good. Every movement looked natural, unhurried. If he hadn’t been watching for exactly this, he never would have noticed.
She slipped through a service door.
Isaac followed.
The back hallway was narrow, dimly lit, lined with closed doors. Staff only. She was twenty feet ahead of him, moving fast now that she was out of sight of the guests.
“End of the line.”
She stopped. The hallway dead-ended at a locked door, and Isaac was blocking the only way back.
When she turned to face him, she didn’t look afraid. She looked... amused.
“Isaac Baxter.” She said his name like she was tasting it. “I was wondering when you’d make your move.”
“You know who I am.”
“Zodiac Tactical’s golden boy. The one they send to all the pretty parties.” She tilted her head, studying him with open curiosity. “You photograph well. The society pages love you.”
He took a step closer. “And you’re the ghost who’s been lifting jewelry off Boston’s finest for the past two months. Three events. Four pieces. Exposed a gap in security protocols that cost two firms their contracts.”
“Only four pieces that you know about.”
Another step. “It’s over. You’re caught.”
Her laugh was low and genuine. “Am I?”
“Locked door behind you. I’m between you and the only exit. So yes.”
She didn’t move. Didn’t panic. Just watched him with those sharp eyes, like she was working through a puzzle and finding it entertaining.
“You’ve been chasing me for weeks,” she said. “Following my patterns. Showing up at events you think I’ll target.” She took a step toward him, closing the distance he’d been so careful to maintain. “But here’s what I can’t figure out.”
Isaac held his ground. “What’s that?”
“Why haven’t you told anyone?”
The question landed harder than it should have. Because she was right. He hadn’t looped in the rest of the team. Hadn’t filed reports. Had kept her existence close to his chest like a secret he wasn’t ready to share.
“I’m handling it.”
“Are you?” Another step. She was close now. Close enough that he caught a hint of her perfume, something subtle and warm. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“I’m doing my job.”
“No.” She smiled, and it transformed her face into something dangerous. “You’re playing a game. Same as me.”
Isaac’s jaw tightened. She was trying to get in his head, and the worst part was that it was working.
“The game’s over,” he said. “Turn around.”
“You know what I think?” She didn’t turn around.
She took one more step, close enough now that he could see the flecks of gold in her brown eyes.
“I think you’re bored. I think you’re tired of standing around looking pretty while nothing interesting ever happens.
And I think”—her voice dropped—“you like that I make you work for it.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you drink whiskey neat at these things, but you never finish the glass. I know you reposition every eleven minutes, clockwise pattern, even when there’s no reason to.
I know you went through the Maddox security breach files three times last month.
” She held his gaze. “And I know that right now, your heart is beating faster than it should be for a man who thinks he’s already won. ”
Isaac’s hand shot out to grab her arm.
She moved.
He’d been in combat. He’d trained with some of the best operators in the world.
He’d never seen anyone move like she did.
Her body seemed to fold in a way that shouldn’t have been possible, slipping out of his grip like she was made of smoke and shadow.
One second she was in front of him; the next she was past him, already running.
He spun and gave chase. She hit the service door at full speed—the one that should have been locked—and vanished into the maze of back hallways.
By the time he made it outside, she was gone.
Isaac stood in the empty alley behind the Whitmore Estate, breathing hard, replaying every second of their conversation. She’d played him. She’d stood there and distracted him with words while she—
His hand went to his jacket pocket.
The note was small, folded once. Expensive paper. He didn’t remember her touching him, but she must have. In that moment when she’d stepped close. When he’d been so focused on her eyes, her words, the way she’d seen straight through him.
He unfolded it.
Same time next month? The Bellingham. I’ll even let you get closer.
Below that, in smaller script:
Try not to miss me too much.
Isaac should have been furious. He should have called Ian, assembled the team, put out alerts to every high-end venue in the city.
He read the note again.
The Bellingham. One month. She’d just told him exactly where she’d be.
It was a trap. It had to be. No one was that bold, that reckless.
But as he tucked the note into his pocket, Isaac realized he was smiling.
One month. He could work with that.
The Zodiac Tactical Series returns with CODE NAME: LEO.
She’s always played by her own rules.
But he's about to show her what happens when she plays with him.