Blue
The glow from my monitors flickered like the last breath of a dying star.
Wires snaked across the desk, tangled between empty Red Bull cans, bullet casings, and a half-eaten strawberry pop tart.
This room was my sanctuary, my place of worship, the place I came to unravel secrets.
I leaned forward, scrolling through the decrypted files again.
Sabrina Elise Dunmore –
Missing/Assumed Deceased
But only she wasn’t missing, and she was very much alive.
I didn’t have confirmation. There were no photos or voice recordings, but the data trail didn’t lie.
I found traces in federal databases that had been scrubbed so clean it screamed corruption.
Not to mention the sealed court records and private subpoenas.
Her alias was tucked inside documents targeting Valdez-linked companies.
It looked like she was trying to build something before she disappeared.
But then the system seemed to have just swallowed her whole.
Then came the kicker, which was the involvement of Kyle’s family.
Their fingerprints were all over the aftermath of her disappearance.
I had tracked down paid off investigators and uncovered tampered records.
It didn’t add up, how a crash with no real body and no dental confirmation, became a closed case with no real closure.
This couldn’t have been a coincidence. The data showed that this was a transaction.
This has to be one of the Harris family’s first favors to the Valdez cartel from the looks of it.
I leaned back in my chair, chest tight. If this was true…
if Sabrina betrayed Crew, it would break him.
Or worse unravel everything he’d built since with Nova, Timberly, the baby, everything that came after she disappeared would be ruined.
But was she a victim or a villain in this story?
I locked the file with my highest encryption.
Not yet, for now I would need more. I needed certainty and until then I would keep quiet.
I had the burner drive in my hand again for the third time today.
I kept unlocking and relocking the file like a man scratching a healing wound.
The more I dug, the messier it got. Sabrina wasn’t just involved in one Valdez case.
She was tangled in five, maybe more. She had her hands in the quiet ones.
The ones that didn't make headlines but changed lives.
They were all sealed and scrubbed. All marked by the same judge, Kyle's family had donated a few million campaign dollars too.
That campaign turned into a closed-door hearings for the Valdez case with a media blackout.
And three days after the secret hearing Sabrina vanished. Just another coincidence.
Yeah right.
This was a sanctioned hit to get rid of the heat on them.
She must have kept her work from Crew because he thought she was taken out by one of his enemies that had come back for revenge.
It was never about him from what I had found.
The truth was that she might’ve died fighting the same people we’re gearing up to burn.
Or worse… maybe she didn’t die at all, maybe she flipped.
I stared at the last document I hadn’t opened.
Asset 3224-Av: “E. Dunmore, S.”
Status Code: Mistress
Location: Unknown
Activity: CLASSIFIED. CLEARED.
But this is where the trail ends, there was no further access even for me.
I logged out and tossed the burner on the table.
My stomach turned as my mind raced. I knew where the data was taking me, but I could go to Crew with a guess.
Sabrina's disappearance was a mystery I had to unravel. And I didn’t know which was worse.
Black was outside running training drills with Timberly and Tati.
While Nova, Tyra and Anesia were with Crew and August watching from the veranda.
I stayed in here, stewing in digital shadows.
I pulled up Sabrina’s file again. From what I found she was brilliant.
She moved through cases like a ghost herself cutting the roots of crime with precision, not fine-tuned skill.
Her last three cases were tied to Valdez laundering networks.
Low-income housing scams, fraudulent land grabs and missing girls.
From the outside in, she had found something, got too close and then she vanished.
Leaving behind a grieving fiancé and unsolved cases.
It was open and shut, but was it? She had been buried by Kyle’s father in frivolous paperwork.
By the same hands that signed off on Kyle's rise to fame in the courtroom.
I stared at her name until it blurred. Then I closed the file.
Still not ready. But soon. I finally cracked it. Sort of.
A few hours later I found August and Black in Crew’s office were discussing plans and reviewing surveillance for known properties owned by the Harris and Valdez families. It was tedious and we still did have a visual on Kyle. I stood at the wall, eyes burning from no sleep.
“Something’s wrong,” I said finally.
“What kind of wrong?” August asked looking up.
“The kind that makes you question everything.” I said, handing him a flash drive.
“What's this?” He asked, raising a brow.
“Evidence. Not proof and until I have something solid, I can’t go to him with this?”
“What?” Black sighed.
Crew’s ex., Sabrina might not be dead.” I said flatly.
They were both silent for a beat before they both looked up.
“Explain.” Black said, narrowing his eyes.
“She was investigating the Valdez family. Got too close and ended up dead from what Crew knows. Kyle’s people helped cover it up. Her death might’ve been staged. Or maybe she’s hiding. Or…” I hesitated. “Helping them.”
“Crew needs to know.” August said.
I shook my head. “Not until I’m sure. I could blow up his world. I won’t do that to him over a maybe.” I said, shaking my head.
“Keep it close. But… stay ready. The truth tends to come out no matter what.” He nodded.
After a hectic night of tossing and turning.
I watched the sun rise from the window of the guestroom I was staying in at Crews, laptop propped beside me.
Down below, Nova was making breakfast with Tyra while Timberly and Tati were giggling over waffles.
August had folded like a deck of cards and allowed her to stay with Timberly for company as long as one of us was here.
From my position in the window, I saw Crew as he walked outside, his eyes less haunted than they had been in the forest the night of the rescue.
But from the steel in his gaze, you could tell that he was still watching and waiting.
Because war was close now and I still didn’t know what side Sabrina was really on.
But one thing was certain. She wasn’t a ghost anymore.
The hum of my servers had become a lullaby for insomnia.
The day had flown by, and it was now past two in the morning, and my office was empty just how I liked it.
No distractions. No voices. Just me, the dark, and the blinking code on a sea of black screens.
I’ve been chasing ghosts for days, digging through scrubbed government files and corrupt court systems like a dog sniffing through trash. And finally... I found her.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard as the photo loaded.
It wasn’t surveillance footage this time.
It was a recent video pulled from a content creator’s TikTok page.
She was spotted boarding a private plane.
From there I followed her trail off a private airport manifest. Video feed from the airport produced a grainy customs shot that I was able to tie to a temporary alias for a woman named, Isla Barrera .
Her face had changed, she was leaner, her hair color had changed, but her eyes still carried that same calculating fire she had in the courtroom.
And her signature tilt of the chin, confident.
A lawyer’s face if I’d ever seen one. I leaned back, eyes narrowing as the pieces came together.
Her trail didn’t stop at the airport either.
It led right to the person I hoped it hadn’t
Valdez.
His private data lines were usually locked down tight with the kind of encryption that could make a grown hacker cry.
But this time, I had help. Our outside tech from Detroit had slipped me a bug months ago.
I'd planted it on a fake real estate site Valdez used to launder funds courtesy of August's real estate system. And now it’s finally paid off.
I found a schedule for a contact drop. Sabrina or Isla was scheduled to meet someone in Timberline three days ago.
After a few more clicks of my keyboard and bingo. I got an address. Two blocks from one of the shell properties Kyle’s family had used for years. I cursed under my breath, slamming my palm on the desk. She wasn’t just alive, that bitch was here.
Fuck! I downloaded the proof, locked it behind two layers of encryption, and left my bunker for the first time in twelve hours.
It took me an hour to make it back to Crew’s estate, finding it locked down tight like I had left it.
I didn’t knock, just used my thumb print to gain access.
Besides Crew hadn’t been sleeping either.
He was standing by the window, shirtless and drinking straight from the bottle like the glass had done him wrong. His head turned when I came in.
“You look like shit,” he said.
“So do you.” I smirked.
“You got something.” He asked, setting the bottle down.
I handed him the drive.
“This is what I had been working on since we found Nova.”
He slid the USB into the port on the side of the desk monitor. The screen came to life, and within seconds, Sabrina’s customs photo filled the screen. Then the alias and the last known location.
Crew didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. His face was stone, but I saw the twitch in his jaw and the flinch behind his eyes.
“She’s here?” he asked.
“Three days ago. Valdez flew her in under Isla Barrera. She’s tied to a shell company Kyle’s used before. I think they’re working together.”
“You think?” he snapped.
“I don’t know for sure. That’s the problem. The trail goes dark from here on. Whoever’s helping her is good and wiped the rest. I think Valdez brought in a counter-hacker. Better than average but still not better than me. They covered her next movements, but I can find it. But I’ll need time.”
Crew dragged a hand down his face.
“So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying Sabrina’s alive. I’m saying she may be working with Kyle. And I’m saying we don’t know if she’s a victim still… or a damn asset.”
Crew paced the room like a caged wolf.
“If what you say is true. This only added to my problems. She knows me and how I move.”
“Exactly.”
“Nova can’t know yet.” He said.
“Are you gonna tell her?”
His silence was answer enough. I didn’t push, that wasn’t my lane.
“She’ll find out soon, Crew,” I said. “And when she does, it’ll hurt more if it comes from someone else.”
He nodded slowly, eyes still on the screen.
“You said they’re covering her tracks?” He asked.
“Yeah.”
“You think it’s her?”
I paused. “No, I doubt it. Has to someone else. This is pro-work, probably someone Valdez’s been working with for years. Might be the same one protecting Kyle too.”
Crew picked up the bottle again, staring out the window.
“They spinning a web and using her to capture me in it or maybe they're just trying to confuse the hell outta me.”
“Then don’t get caught or confused.” I said, taking a step forward. “Remember who’s in that bedroom upstairs, carrying your kid and risking her life to be by your side. Don’t let a ghost from your past get you killed or worse, let it destroy what you’ve got now.”
He met my eyes. The storm was still there. But this time, it was focused, more grounded.
“Let me handle it,” he said.
I nodded. “You got it.” I said, before turning and walking out, knowing the next time we saw Sabrina. We’d either be saving her or killing her.