Trust Fund Trouble

meone will go to protect a secret, stea

of brick, dust, and lies-somewhere in the aband

oo quiet. Dani adjusted her hoodie and triple-checked her bag for the gear she'd

want to do thi

hair back. "But we're

hasn't been touched in years. Whatever's

d," Dani

ally, the Foundation used the lower levels as a storage site for their "miscellaneous" which, in this wo

looking for a

who I was before

s thick with mildew and mold. Paint peeled like snake skin. The main hall was fl

basement access should be be

older it got. Like the wall

l half-collapsed, metal rusted. Dani wen

ahead, the tiles cracked, and gra

room?"

ieced together from old construction

ep felt like it echoed in

found

welde

ni muttere

bag something she'd "borrowed" from a te

Alec asked m

be asking

ta centers, museums, even a Swiss bank. Thi

use i

between us. The

erturned. Hard drives shattered. Pap

m held a single fireproof

"Same seal as the Foun

heart thudding. "You

ething

ds precise. The sea

pene

stamped CONFIDENTIAL. Some marked PROJEC

nd pulled out

was a birth cer

e mother field was

ne named Mar

hell?" I

eading with me. "Th

me. Sylvia w

logically," he

lood and consequences. A donor agreement. A child selected by gene

d hollowly. "Designed

like she mig

I'm so

ly hea

t rea

n. She'd tried to take everything down w

showing up a

elac

fr

t change. But he didn't

said, standing

y. "I didn't

cut you off. That you

when I found out what they

uld've told me. From the

u to see me the w

've let me

back, clutching the folder like it was th

tside the door

. Multiple.

Dani whispered.

and smashing it with his heel. We ducked out a side mai

thundered

what we fou

said, breathless. "

exit into the alley straigh

reeched t

WN!" just as a w

s split

d a dumpster. Dani do

when I looked up, the SUV

nd, blood soaking

hands over the wound. "You'

worse," he

disturbing thing yo

"Calling the burner l

n had gone pale, but his

rust anyone until we know w

ened. "Why woul

anything to do with this

nted in grimy pavement, ha

ke sense. You're not some s

. "You think that, but y

the go-bag in her trunk. "We need to move. Th

," I said. "They'll be wat

y," Dani muttered, he

y for bullet w

ind of friends you make when you crash a senator's yacht

and helped Alec into the back seat of her car.

ower Farrow, with a guy named Silas, who looked like

up with holes in you," he m

ch him up, ri

put a dragon tattoo over it, and gi

the door. "Just th

own on a rolled cloth and k

e said between

r w

About my last name. About w

, Alec. But I'm also scare

y a whisper. "More

's gonna need rest. And probably

e faintest s

he rooftop of her apartment building,

flask. "Water," she s

a sip.

e. Your mom was part of an experimental project

up beaut

to burn it

k I have a ch

t my shoulder. "Good. Becau

to her.

le from the chest before we ran. Didn't tell

her. "And wh

reen flickered, then loaded a black-an

aned

e of a lab. C

ild. No older than five

label on t

MONROE PROT

mach d

me before I could

they weren't just watch

familiar silhouette stand

uit. Unmistak

's f

ry," Dani said. "Now what a

ind buzzed with every betrayal

to take i

time, I