First message
Arya and Ethan were inseparable as children. They grew up on the same street, spending every day together, making childish promises that they’d never leave each other’s side. To everyone around them, it was obvious they shared a bond deeper than friendship.
Then, when they were thirteen, everything changed.
On the same night, both of them vanished.
The world believed they had been kidnapped. In reality, they had been taken by two different covert organisations. Ethan was recruited into an elite international security division, where he was trained to become one of the world’s finest protection specialists. Arya disappeared into the shadows of a clandestine black-ops programme that forged her into the deadliest assassin alive.
For fifteen years, they lived completely different lives, believing the other had died long ago.
Their paths finally cross during a mission.
Arya is contracted to abduct one of the world’s most influential businessmen. Ethan is leading the executive protection detail. Neither recognises the other beneath years of change, and the operation erupts into a relentless fight—skill against skill, each matching the other’s every move.
As Ethan finally gains the upper hand and grabs her wrist, her sleeve tears back.
Just beneath her shoulder is a small crescent-shaped birthmark.
His breath catches.
His grip loosens.
He knows that mark.
Only one person in the world ever had it.
“…Arya?”
For the first time in fifteen years, the assassin hesitates.