She began stuffing them into a large leather tote bag.

My phone vibrated in my palm.

An alert popped up at the top of the screen.

It was a text from an unknown number.

I tapped the notification.

The message was short.

*We know about the grandmother’s account. If you call the police, we tell Ethan’s commander about your past.*

My stomach sickened.

They didn’t just want my money.

They wanted to ruin everything I had spent my life building.

I looked back at the live video feed of my sister.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black device.

She plugged it directly into the side of my backup external hard drive.

A blue light began to blink on the drive, signaling a data transfer.

All of my case files, my investigation notes, and my personal archives were on that drive.

If she copied those files, she would have access to every active government contact I had.

I pressed the record button on my phone screen to capture the feed.

My thumb hovered over the call button for Claire.