Page 96 of Gatsby's Starlet
“Wait—” I tried, reaching for him, but he was already gone, swallowed by the trees the same way he’d come.
“Down!” Ruby hissed, yanking me back just as lights broke through the woods, beams cutting across the ground, voices getting closer, louder, controlled in a way that sent a different kind of fear through me.
We dropped back, hands up before they even fully cleared the trees, my heart still racing, my eyes dragging once—just once—toward where Gatsby had been, but there was nothing there now.
Nothing.
“Don’t move!” one of them barked, weapon trained on us as others spread out behind him, scanning the area, locking it down.
“There—” Ruby said quickly, breathless, pointing off to the left, away from where Gatsby had disappeared. “There was another one—he ran that way—he shot him!”
I followed her lead without hesitation, nodding fast, forcing my voice to work. “He came out of nowhere—we didn’t see—he just—”
The agents moved immediately, some breaking off in the direction she pointed, others staying on us, weapons still up, still cautious.
And just like that, Gatsby was gone.
Hidden.
Safe.
Because we made sure of it.
***
THE WOODS DIDN’Tquiet right away after the agents moved in, the space around us filling with voices and movement and the sharp sweep of lights cutting through the dark as they locked everything down, and even though Kane’s body lay only a few yards away, even though my pulse still hadn’t slowed, the danger didn’t feel over so much as… shifted.
Different.
Colder.
“Stay where you are,” one of them ordered, his weapon still trained on us as two more moved in from the side, their attention sharp, controlled, taking in everything at once, the dirt on our clothes, the way we were breathing too fast, the ground disturbed behind us.
We didn’t argue.
Didn’t move.
Hands still up, hearts still racing, the weight of what had just happened pressing in from all sides as more agents pushed through the trees, their presence tightening around us until there was no space left to run even if we’d wanted to.
Then he stepped forward.
I didn’t know his name yet, but I knew the way everything shifted when he moved, the way the other agents adjusted without being told, the way his eyes landed on us and didn’t miss a single detail. This was the man in charge.
He took us in quickly, the dirt, the fear, the fact that we were alive, and then his gaze flicked once toward Kane before comingback to us, something in his expression tightening just enough to show he was already putting it together.
“You came out of the structure?” he asked, his voice steady, even, carrying authority without needing to rise.
Ruby nodded first, faster than I could manage, her breath still uneven. “There’s a tunnel,” she said, her voice shaking just enough to sell it without losing control. “Under the floor—we didn’t even know it was there until—until we escaped—”
Her words broke just slightly, and I picked it up without thinking, the truth close enough to make the lie easier. “They were keeping us down there,” I said, my voice rough, my throat tight from everything that had come before. “We dug our way out—we thought—” I swallowed, forcing it out. “We thought we could get away before they killed us.”
He didn’t interrupt.
Didn’t rush us.
He just watched, listening, his eyes moving between us in a way that made it clear he wasn’t just hearing the words, he was measuring them, weighing what matched, what didn’t.
“You’re the two females being held,” he said after a second, more to himself than to us, like he was confirming something already in his head, and that small shift told me he’d known before he ever saw us, that we weren’t a surprise so much as… confirmation.
