The armored van rattled as it came to a stop. Lucy Chen pulled her vest tighter, heart steady as she checked her gear one last time. The LAPD’s SWAT team moved like clockwork around her, rifles loaded, radios crackling with terse updates. This was no ordinary takedown, Intel suggested they were about to intercept a major trafficking ring operating out of a warehouse on the edge of downtown.

Lucy was focused. No distractions, no doubts. Until the name dropped over comms. “Primary suspect confirmed: Christopher Sanford. Repeat, Christopher Sanford.” Her breath caught. Sanford. Chris.

Her ex. The Assistant District Attorney who had once sat across from her at candlelit dinners, who had once seemed too straight-laced, too by-the-book to even bend a parking rule. But now? He was the monster behind this. The man profiting off stolen childhoods.

Lucy’s grip tightened on her weapon, her jaw clenched. It all clicked, the too, perfect facade, the connections that never made sense, the smug confidence he wore like a second skin. Chris wasn’t just bending the law. He was breaking it, weaponizing it, hiding behind it.

The team breached. The warehouse exploded into chaos, screams, gunfire, the crash of splintering wood as SWAT swarmed room after room. Lucy pushed forward, clearing corners, scanning faces. And then she saw him. Chris stood near the back, a pistol in one hand, a stack of case files in the other, like he could lawyer his way out of this.