As Ethan was escorted into the living room, he saw two female agents flanking Mia, speaking quietly, trying to calm her down.Mia's eyes were red and wet. The moment she saw him, she tried to move toward him and was gently held back."Ethan"Her voice broke on his name."It's fine." He gave her the most reassuring smile he could manage with his hands cuffed behind him. "This is just a standard interview. I'll cooperate and be back before you know it."He held her gaze for a moment."Call Sophia Chen. Tell her I've been brought in by federal agents and ask her to find me a lawyer. Can you do that?"Mia nodded hard, tears finally spilling.He wanted to say more, but the agents moved him toward the door. The early morning light outside was sharp and bright, and he squinted against it, his mind already calculating.Twelve days. I need to be out well before then.In the transport vehicle, Ethan and Agent Park sat facing each other across a security partition. The AC was running, the air cr

"Does anyone have suggestions?"Captain Mitchell looked around the table, her tone carrying the particular exhaustion of someone who has been running on frustration for too long.Nobody answered.One senior agent picked up his coffee cup and found it fascinating. Another turned slightly toward the window as though the weather outside required study. Others looked at files or found their phones suddenly interesting.The conference room was so quiet the ventilation hum was audible.Just as Mitchell was about to say something sharp, the door opened again.The communications officer came back in, his complexion even worse than before."Didn't I send you to handle the public situation?" Mitchell's patience snapped. "Why are you back? If you can't manage it, write me a memo explaining why and I'll find someone who can."He flinched visibly."Captain, it's not, the department head had a situation and asked me to deliver this in his place"He'd agreed without thinking it through, and was now

After Walsh exchanged a few words with Sophia by her car at the curb, he left. Sophia's car didn't move, she was clearly waiting for Ethan.He had barely taken three steps toward her when a voice came from behind him."Mr. Cole."He knew who it was without turning. He suppressed a sigh and turned with a smile already in place."Agent Park. Do you have something for me?""I have my eye on you." Park's gaze was direct and carrying no diplomatic softening whatsoever. "Don't make any mistakes. If you show a single crack, you will regret it."Ethan raised an eyebrow."Can I interpret that as a threat, Agent Park? Because I want to make sure I'm characterizing this accurately.""Interpret it however you like." Her expression didn't shift. "I have decided that you are not what you appear to be, and that you are connected to this case."Ethan looked at her for a moment.Honestly, he found her both genuinely impressive and genuinely exhausting. The relentless focus was almost admirable in the

"Agent Park, this situation involves someone I have a particular connection to. How about I buy you a coffee and we talk through it properly?"Ethan kept his tone warm and persuasive.He had a sense, the antagonistic kind of attention Park had been paying him was still attention, and people who were genuinely certain someone was guilty tended to stay engaged. He was counting on that.Park hesitated.Her curiosity, and possibly her conviction that Ethan was up to something she could use, won out."Fine. Groundwork on the Upper West Side. Thirty minutes."She hung up.Mia, who had been listening, gave him a look that contained several emotions at once."That woman has been trying to put you away since she first showed up. Why are you being friendly with her?""She's doing her job," Ethan said, giving a diplomatic non-answer. "It pays to be cooperative."Mia pressed her lips together but didn't push it.---Half an hour later, Ethan and Mia settled into a corner table at the coffee shop

That afternoon, Captain Mitchell drove toward the federal regional headquarters, the summer city moving past her windows in a blur of green and glass that she had no attention to spare for.The phone call from Robert Park the previous evening was still with her. The words Loan Enforcement Operation had settled in her mind with the particular weight of something that was both a burden and, unexpectedly, an opportunity.The conference room at the regional office had the quiet density of a space where significant decisions were being made.Robert Park sat at the head of the table, his gaze moving across the assembled bureau heads from across the region."The operation we're deploying today targets predatory lending networks, with Tri-State Financial Services as the primary subject. These organizations are not running a gray-area business. They are engaged in violent debt collection, coercion, and the systematic assault of borrowers. They operate with the confidence of people who believe