At least I still had my mind, everything I’d learned tucked away in it. A small hope that I would be able to contribute something further to the FBI and our nation’s security—the only way I knew how to make up for my mistakes.

“Only a few minutes’ walk from here,” she said and motioned for me to follow her.

Our walk was silent, and I kept a few paces behind Lenore, watching the way her curls swayed as she walked.

Could I rid myself of her?

She was far too observant. The last thing I needed was Grey showing up in Briarport and dragging me back to Quantico. I’d really lose my badge then. He’d put his reputation on the line for me once, but that was all I got.

One more chance.

And honestly, I didn’t even deserve that.

I wasn’t going to squander the only chance I had to make up for everything. Blythe never would’ve let something like this pass.

I shuddered to think what she would’ve thought if she’d seen what I’d become after her death. A complete pit of nothing. I didn’t feel. I never wanted to feel again. I let myself slip away into the bottom of bottles, and when that started not to work, I found something new.

A wall slammed up in my mind, blocking out the memories of those few months.

Grey pulled me out of the darkness I was succumbing to, a place I never would have been able to crawl back from if I kept going.

I tossed my empty cup into a trash bin we passed as I finished the last sip of my drink.

Lenore paused at an alley, and I tried my best to forget about it all, to leave the past in the past, even though I knew every study, therapist, and bit of logic said that would never work. I wasn’t ready to face that reality.

Instead, I was focusing on Briarport.

Lenore backed up a few feet from the alley and opened the door to the storefront beside us. I turned around to follow.

Inside, I found a small boutique filled with clothing, jewelry, and other miscellaneous tourist items.

I brushed past a rack filled with stickers, a display water bottle atop it, showing off the multitude of stickers the shopkeeper was able to cram over the surface. I spotted one that read ‘Sea You In Briarport!’ and cringed.

“Len!” a voice shouted from the register. “You never visit me down here!” The high pitched, shrill voice pierced my ears as the woman ran from behind the counter. “Today has been horrific.”

No one was even there. How could it have been so terrible?

“You say that every day, Mallory,” Lenore noted.

“And every day is as bad as the last. The tourists are completely endless,” she said indignantly.

“Mhm,” Lenore hummed. “I need to use the apartment entry.”