Chapter 1

I work for a department so secret it doesn' t officially exist, my name, Ava Chen, scrubbed from most public records, my life a carefully constructed series of classified projects and non-disclosure agreements. So when my father, a decorated but retired intelligence officer, called me with a personal request, it was unusual. He wanted me to come home for a few days.

"There's someone I want you to meet," he had said, his voice carrying the familiar weight of command, even in retirement.

"Dad, I'm in the middle of a critical systems audit."

"This is also critical, Ava. His name is Liam Vance. His father is Senator Vance. It's a good match."

I sighed, I knew what this was, a carefully arranged meeting, a potential alliance between old-world influence and new-world power. I didn't care about that, but I owed my father. He rarely asked for anything.

"Fine," I agreed. "But I have to bring the project with me."

That "project" was parked in my secure garage, a prototype government-issued armored vehicle, codenamed "Red Flag H-1", it looked like a boring, slightly bulky black sedan, but its chassis was a composite alloy, its windows were bulletproof, and its encrypted communication systems were linked directly to a command center in Langley. I was field-testing its stealth and performance characteristics, and I couldn' t just leave it behind.

So there I was, driving the most technologically advanced vehicle on the planet through downtown traffic, on my way to a fancy restaurant to meet a man I had no interest in marrying. The irony was not lost on me.

I was nearing the restaurant, looking for a place to park the two-hundred-million-dollar piece of government property. I saw a spot opening up and signaled, beginning my turn.

Suddenly, a flash of bright red cut me off.

A luxury sports car, a Ferrari, screamed into the space I was heading for, its engine roaring like an angry beast. It came in so fast and at such a sharp angle that its driver clearly misjudged the distance.

There was a sickening crunch of metal against metal.

The Ferrari slammed directly into my front passenger-side fender. The impact was jarring, but inside the Red Flag's reinforced cabin, I barely felt a thing, the vehicle's inertial dampeners absorbing most of the force. The Ferrari, however, was not so lucky. Its front end crumpled like a cheap can.

The driver' s door of the sports car flew open, and a woman stumbled out, she was dressed in a tight, expensive-looking dress, her high heels sinking slightly into the asphalt.

She pointed a finger at my car, her face a mask of outrage.

"Are you blind? Did you not see me coming? What the hell is wrong with you?"

I took a deep breath, killed the engine, and stepped out of the vehicle. I looked at the damage, my fender had a noticeable dent and a long scrape, but the Ferrari' s headlight was shattered, and its bumper was hanging off.

"You cut me off," I stated calmly. "I was signaling for the spot."

The woman scoffed, a cloud of expensive perfume and alcohol washing over me. "Signaling? I don't care if you sent up a damn flare! This is a one-hundred-thousand-dollar car! What are you driving, a ten-year-old Honda? You can't afford to even breathe on my car!"

She pulled out her phone, snapping pictures of the damage from every angle.

"You are going to pay for this," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Every single penny. And for my emotional distress. I' m calling my boss right now, you have no idea who you just messed with."

I decided it was best to involve the person I was here to meet. This woman was clearly his employee, given her entitled attitude. Maybe he could be reasonable.

I pulled out my own standard-issue, encrypted phone. "I believe your boss is Liam Vance. I'm here to meet him. Perhaps we can call him and sort this out."

The woman, Tiffany "Tiff" Hayes, threw her head back and laughed, a shrill, unpleasant sound.

"You? Meet Mr. Vance? Don't make me laugh," she sneered. "He doesn't meet with trash like you. I'm his executive assistant, and I handle his schedule. You're not on it."

"I am supposed to have dinner with him," I said, my patience wearing thin. "My father arranged it."

"Then your father is either a liar or a nobody," Tiff shot back. "Now, are you going to give me your insurance, or do I have to make this a whole lot uglier for you?"

I decided to call Liam directly, my father had given me his number. He answered on the third ring, his voice smooth but impatient.

"Liam Vance."

"Mr. Vance, my name is Ava Chen. We were supposed to meet for dinner. There's been a small accident outside the restaurant with your assistant, Tiffany."

There was a pause on the other end, then I heard muffled talking, it was Tiff's voice, feeding him a twisted version of the story.

Liam' s tone turned cold. "Listen, I don't know who you are, but my assistant just told me some woman in a piece of junk sedan crashed into her. Now she's trying to scam her way into a dinner with me. Tiff handles these things, pay her what you owe for the damages and get lost."

He hung up.

I stared at my phone, the dial tone buzzing in my ear. He didn' t even give me a chance to explain, he just took the word of his drunk, aggressive assistant over mine. The sheer arrogance was stunning.

Tiff smirked, victorious. "See? I told you. Now, about the damages. The repair for a Ferrari like this will be at least fifty thousand dollars. Plus, you' ve ruined my evening. I think another fifty thousand for my trouble should cover it. One hundred thousand dollars. Now."

She was drunk, extorting me in broad daylight, and her boss, my prospective fiancé, was backing her up without a second thought. The crowd of onlookers was growing, whispering and pointing, some of them recognizing Liam Vance's flashy assistant and her infamous car.

"She's driving that piece of crap, there's no way she has a hundred grand," someone muttered.

Another person added, "That's Tiff Hayes, Liam Vance's girl. She's ruthless. That poor woman is screwed."

I looked from Tiff' s smug face to the whispers of the crowd, to the memory of Liam' s dismissive voice. Something inside me shifted, the quiet, professional cybersecurity expert receded, and a different part of me took over. The part that had dismantled entire criminal networks from a keyboard, the part that understood that arrogance was a vulnerability waiting to be exploited.

They thought I was a nobody, they thought they could bully and extort me.

They had no idea who they were dealing with.

I gave Tiff a small, tight smile.

"Fine," I said. "Let's handle this."