Double crossed

Camila Delgado had survived three black-site extractions, two burned covers, and one mission that officially never happened—but none of that prepared her for the silence that followed the signal’s cut. The safehouse in Lisbon felt suddenly smaller, the air stale with betrayal she hadn’t yet named. As a top operative for a covert U.S. agency buried beneath layers of deniability, Camila had learned to trust her instincts as much as her training. Tonight, every instinct screamed wrong. Daniel Cross, her partner on more missions than she could count, stood across the room too still, his calm smile rehearsed, his eyes calculating in a way she’d never seen before. The truth came too late, delivered not by words but by motion. The door she’d checked twice opened soundlessly, and the weight of the double-cross crashed down on her all at once Cross wasn’t alone, and he never had been. A shadow moved behind her as Cross stepped in close, blocking her escape with practiced precision.