“Perfect.” He took a step toward her. “I’m done with the games. I was nice before. Now, playtime is over. Stop lying to me and tell me what is going on.” He’d lowered his voice to almost a growl, and it sent a razor under her skin.

Sure, he was a handsome man, with that dark hair, a scruff of black whiskers, those brown eyes the color of deep, rich coffee. But under all that simmered a warrior with hidden skills and the secrets to go with them.

Whoever she’d met a month ago, broken, sweet, and a little charming, had vanished.

This was the interrogator.

She took a deep breath. “You don’t want to know.”

His voice cut low. “I very much want to know. Just like I very much want to believe you.”

“Really? You still don’t believe me?”

“There was only one body in that plane.”

“Because Sergei must have been thrown from it, like I was!” She stopped, stared at them. “He could still be alive.”

“Tae. You saw that plane,” Colt said. “The fact you survived is . . . well, a miracle.”

It was a miracle. But she knew exactly what he meant, thank you, and that was just . . . enough. She walked over to her axe and pulled it from the ice. Turned. “I’m telling you the truth. I was kidnapped, shoved onto a plane, and survived the crash. Either you believe me or you don’t.”

Colt’s mouth tightened. He looked at Dodge. Then back at her.

And here it came. The same response she got back in Seattle when she went to her lab partner, Zoey, the same day that Faheem had died.

Hesitation. Maybe even disbelief.

Fine. She didn’t care if he believed her or not. She stalked away.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know!”

“I believe you.”

She stopped. Turned to Colt. Met his eyes, hard in hers. “You do?”

“I do.”

The words swept through her, hot, bold, like a rush of summer sun, and she gasped. Stupidly, tears burned her eyes. “Really?”

He nodded. “But I would really like to know why I nearly fell to my death. What was in that backpack of yours that you so desperately needed?”

She took a breath. “You’re going to wish I hadn’t told you.”

“Try me.”

Overhead, thick, dark clouds rolled in from the west. A breeze kicked up.

She took a breath. And then said it, the one really out-of-the-box, almost apocalyptic truth that out loud sounded all-the-way crazy.

“Because I think someone is trying to poison the world, and . . . only I can stop them.”

TWO

You do know that she sounds nuts.” Dodge’s voice beside Colt had cut low, which didn’t help at all against the wind.