Chloe's POV
The frantic, high-tech chase for Marie Santos had ended exactly the way I knew it would from the very beginning: in absolute, crushing frustration. For two whole days and two agonizing nights, the atmosphere inside the villa's upper study had been thick enough to choke on. The air had felt stagnant, weighed down by the heavy scent of bitter black coffee and the raw stress of a ticking clock. I had stood faithfully by Asher's side through it all, barely blinking as I watched the endless, rhythmic flicker of fluorescent monitors. His entire underworld empire had been completely mobilized, pulling every single scrap of data available, only to chase absolute ghosts through the city's vast, complicated network of traffic cameras.
