THE COLLECTIVE

  WINTER K. WILLIS

  CONNECT WITH WINTER

  Winter K. Willis is a pseudonym for our two-person writing team. We like to think of it as our band name. We love telling our characters' stories and hope that you enjoy reading them.

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  Copyright © 2026 by Winter K. Willis

  All rights reserved.

  Published by Celestial Bear Publishing

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  ALSO BY WINTER K. WILLIS

  THE ASSISTANT SERIES:

  THE ASSISTANT

  THE CUSTODIAN

  THE JOURNALIST

  THE PSYCHIATRIST

  THE SEARCH PARTY

  THE COUNCILWOMAN

  THE COLLECTIVE

  STANDALONES:

  THE WIFE INSIDE

  HOW THE AFFAIR ENDS

  BEHIND THE NEIGHBOR’S DOOR

  THE PERFECT GIFT

  THE PERFECT EX-WIFE

  THE LAST CHANCE

  THE WIDOW’S HOLIDAY

  CONTENTS

  1. Eden

  2. Eden

  3. Eden

  4. Eden

  5. Eden

  6. Eden

  7. Eden

  8. Derek

  9. Eden

  10. Derek

  11. Eden

  12. Claudia (Past)

  13. Claudia (Past)

  14. Claudia (Past)

  15. Claudia (Past)

  16. Claudia (Past)

  17. Claudia (Past)

  18. Wendy (Present)

  19. Wendy

  20. Wendy

  21. Penny

  22. Eden

  23. Eden

  24. Eden

  25. Eden

  26. Derek

  27. Penny

  28. Eden

  29. Eden

  30. Eden

  31. Eden

  32. Eden

  33. Eden

  34. Eden

  35. Eden

  36. Eden

  37. Eden

  38. Eden

  39. Eden

  40. Eden (Weeks Later)

  41. Lila (Past)

  Also by WINTER K. WILLIS

  A Letter From Winter

  Connect with Winter

  1

  EDEN

  Time is running out. We have to find Maria.

  Even though the back bedroom of the apartment is cold, I can feel sweat trickling down my brow as I watch Derek on the computer. The man I love is dedicated, and we have new people in our orbit who are helping as well, but is it enough?

  Maria was abducted in Las Vegas by millionaire John Ashworth. He has killed before, and now he wants revenge for what I did to his sister.

  But Maria is innocent.

  We need a break soon on our mission to find her. This lead has to pan out.

  Derek clicks something and enlarges the result. Slowly, the text populates on the screen. An address appears in bold. It is located in a secluded area near a waterfront. My pulse hammers as a name loads beneath it.

  Owner: Claudia Ashworth.

  My breath leaves my lungs. “Claudia Ashworth. You are kidding.”

  Derek shakes his head. “His mother. The councilwoman.”

  “You don’t think she is involved, do you?” I say.

  “It almost makes sense.”

  “But she’s too high profile, right?”

  “Maybe this is bigger than we even thought.”

  Claudia Ashworth is a Seattle city councilwoman. She is powerful. Connected. Untouchable. She has deep influence in the city and deep ties to several corporate donors. She is also Liv and John’s mother.

  Derek keeps his eyes on the screen. “This is not a visitor entrance. Look at the architecture. It is a service door. A side entrance. Not public.”

  My stomach twists.

  I feel the dread roll through me like a cold wave. “Maria might be there...”

  Derek looks at me, and I see the realization settle in his expression.

  “I’ll tell the others,” I say, heading for the door. The three women working with us wait in the front room: Wendy, a renowned criminal psychiatrist; Penny, a master observationalist; and Nadia, Maria’s sister.

  Before I can get to the front room, a heavy knock echoes sharply from the hallway outside the apartment.

  I freeze.

  The knock comes again, louder this time.

  Someone is at our door.

  I turn to Derek. He is already pulling up a camera feed on his computer to see what is going on.

  The computer screen flickers once, and then the power cuts out, plunging us into darkness.

  Phone screens turn on, dim light cutting across faces and furniture. Wendy stands near the couch, composed even now. Penny is already scanning the room, eyes sharp, clocking everyone’s position. Nadia hovers close to the wall, her knuckles white around her phone.

  “Was anyone expecting someone?” Penny asks quietly.

  No one answers.

  The silence itself is the answer.

  Another knock lands against the door, more insistent.

  “Everyone, calm down,” Derek says. His voice is steady, but tight. “Stay where you are.”

  He moves toward the door, phone light angled low. I follow a step behind him despite myself.

  “Eden,” Wendy murmurs, a warning.

  Derek peers through the peephole. He exhales sharply. “It’s Dylan.”

  Before I can react, Derek cracks the door and pulls her inside, fast. Penny locks it behind her.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Derek snaps.

  Dylan blinks against the sudden light, defensive immediately. “I was knocking.”

  “How did you find us?” I ask.

  She hesitates. Too long.

  “I followed you,” she says finally. “I’ve been trying to keep track of you. I was looking for Lila.”

  Nadia stiffens at the name.

  “You followed us,” Derek repeats.

  “I’m not stupid,” Dylan says. “You’re not subtle.”

  Penny’s eyes narrow. Wendy watches Dylan like a specimen under glass.

  “What are you doing?” Dylan asks, looking around now, really looking. Her gaze lingers on each of us, connecting dots. “This is some weird team,” she says. “You’re not just hanging out. You’re working on something.”

  No one answers.

  Her jaw tightens. “You don’t have to tell me. I can see it.”

  She turns to me. “You hired me at the restaurant because of Lila, didn’t you? Because you thought I could help. And then Lila ruined it. She made everyone treat me like a kid.”

  I don’t respond.

  Dylan watches my face closely. “That silence tells me everything.”

  Her frustration sharpens. “I’m eighteen. I’m not a child.”

  Derek crosses his arms. “Did you cut the power?”

  Dylan winces. “I didn’t mean to. I was trying to disable the camera outside. I hit the wrong breaker.”

  “You blacked out the whole unit,” Derek says flatly.

  “I can fix it,” she says quickly, already tapping her phone. A second later, the lights hum back on. The computer boots, the room snapping into full clarity again.

  Derek mutters, “Great. Guess I really am getting that generator.”

  Dylan’s attention drifts to Wendy. She stares, frowning. “You’re not Lila.”

  “No,” Wendy says evenly.

  “But you look like her,” Dylan says, almost mesmerized. “You really do.”

  “That’s enough,” I say.

  Dylan turns back to me, hopeful again. “I can help. You know I can.”

  “You can’t,” I say. “And you won’t.”

  Her face falls. “Why?”

  “Because what we’re doing is dangerous,” I say. “And because Lila made it clear she didn’t want you involved.”

  “So you’re just taking her side,” Dylan snaps.

  “I’m taking responsibility,” I say. “You need to leave.”

  Dylan looks around, searching for support. She finds none.

  “Before you go,” I add, “you promise me something. You don’t tell anyone you were here. You don’t snoop. You don’t follow us again.”

  Her eyes glisten with anger. “You’re shutting me out.”

  “If you’re upset,” I say quietly, “be upset with Lila. Not us.”

  She opens her mou
th like she’s about to argue again, then thinks better of it. She grabs the door, shoulders hunched.

  “This is stupid,” she mutters and leaves.

  The door closes behind her.

  Penny exhales slowly. “That’s going to be a problem.”

  “I agree,” Wendy says.

  “There’s nothing I can do about it now,” I say.

  Wendy nods once. “Let’s hope Lila sees it that way too.”

  Nadia steps forward. “What are we doing next about Maria?”

  Derek straightens, glancing at the screen he abandoned earlier. “We have a new location. Somewhere Maria could be held.”

  Penny and Wendy both turn to us, waiting.

  Time is running out.

  2

  EDEN

  The city thins out as we head north, buildings giving way to stretches of dark water and trees pressed close to the road. The sky is low and gray, the kind of color that makes it feel later than it is. Derek drives. Penny sits in the back, quiet, knees pulled up, eyes tracking every passing turn like she is memorizing escape routes.

  Wendy stays behind with Nadia.

  I tell myself it is the right call. Nadia has been wound too tight. Wendy will ground her.

  This was never supposed to happen like this.

  Maria is missing because of me. Because of Liv. Because of a history that should have stayed contained inside one family and somehow metastasized into other people’s lives. Nadia did not sign up for this. Wendy did not. Penny did not. Derek did, but even that feels like something I took rather than something he offered.

  I stare out the window, watching the shoreline flash in pieces between trees.

  John Ashworth took Maria because he could not get to me.

  That truth sits in my chest like a stone.

  We are headed toward what the others believe is just another one of John’s properties. A place he owns. A place he might be hiding. I let them believe that. Derek and I have not said the rest out loud. We have not said Claudia’s name.

  Owner: Claudia Ashworth.

  Seattle city councilwoman. Mother. Donor. Power broker.

  I do not know what she knows. That is the problem. I do not know if she is complicit, ignorant, or willfully blind in the way powerful people so often are. I do not know if she understands exactly what her son is capable of, or if she has built an entire internal architecture designed to never ask the wrong questions.

  If she is involved, even tangentially, the rules change.

  The police stop being a solution and start becoming a risk.

  I think about it again, like I have a dozen times already. What it would mean to call them. What it would look like to sit across from an officer and explain that a wealthy donor’s son abducted my friend in retaliation for something I did, with no proof beyond instinct and patterns and fear.

  No body. No video. No witnesses willing to go on record.

  And worse, donations. Fundraisers. Smiling photo ops. A family name etched into plaques and press releases.

  The only thing we know for certain is that when people approached the police about this family, those people ended up being discredited, have gone missing, or worse.

  If Claudia is involved, some of them might not just dismiss me. Some of them might actively protect him.

  The road curves. Derek slows without being told.

  “You okay?” He asks, not looking at me.

  I nod, even though he cannot see it. “Yeah.”

  Penny shifts in the back. “How much farther?”

  “Ten minutes,” Derek says. “Then we park.”

  She hums softly, anxious energy leaking out of her in small movements. Penny has lived too close to danger for too long to mistake what this is. She has not asked questions. She knows better than to push before we are ready.

  I think about Wendy’s twin sister, Lila. We could use her help. She has taken people like John out before.

  But Lila is unstable.

  The last time she thought Dylan was involved, she fired warning shots at Derek and me.

  Lila is a weapon pointed in too many directions. She could save Maria, or she could get someone killed. Or both.

  Time is running out. Every hour that passes makes the odds worse. Every delay gives John more space to move Maria, to hurt her, to disappear her completely.

  I rub my hands together, trying to warm them.

  If Claudia knows, then this place, this red door, might not even be about John alone. It might be infrastructure. Cover. A family asset repurposed into something else entirely.

  If she does not know, then this could be the crack. The place where he hides things precisely because no one would think to look here.

  Derek turns off the main road onto a narrower stretch. The trees close in, taller now, denser. The water disappears from view.

  “This is it,” he says.

  He pulls over onto a gravel turnout half a mile down from the address. Kills the engine.

  “We go in on foot,” he continues. “Cut through the woods. Avoid the road. If anyone is watching the main entrances, they will not be watching the property line.”

  Penny nods immediately. She is already checking her jacket, her phone, the small flashlight clipped inside her pocket.

  “What is the plan if we see him?” She asks.

  Derek pauses. “We do not engage. Not yet. We confirm. If John is here, that changes everything. If he is not,” he trails off, then finishes, “then the odds of Maria being here are low.”

  “And if someone else is?” I ask.

  “Then we reassess.”

  Which means improvise. Which means risk.

  I open the door. Cold air rushes in, sharp and wet. The woods loom ahead of us, dark even in daylight.

  I step out, boots sinking slightly into damp earth.

  Somewhere beyond those trees is a door painted red. Somewhere beyond that door might be Maria, or proof that we are already too late.

  Derek locks the car. Penny falls into step beside me.

  “We move quietly,” Derek says. “Who knows what is out there once we hit the trees?”

  I take a breath and follow him into the woods, the light thinning with every step, the path narrowing until there is no path at all.

  3

  EDEN

  The woods close around us as soon as we leave the road behind. The ground is uneven, soft in places, loud in others. Every step feels like a risk of making too much noise.

  Derek leads. Penny follows a few feet behind him. I bring up the rear.

  My thoughts will not settle.

  If this lead does not pan out, I do not know what we do next. A dead end here means weeks lost, maybe more. Maria does not have weeks.

  Penny slows slightly, letting me catch up.

  “What if this isn’t it?” She whispers. “What if there’s no one there?”

  “There has to be,” I say. The words come out sharper than I intend. “It has to be.”

  “That’s not a plan,” she says quietly.

  I swallow. “If it’s not, then we are out of options. We don’t have anything else concrete.”

  She looks ahead toward Derek, then back at me. “So we are betting everything on this place.”

  “Yes,” I say. “We have to find something. A person. Movement. A sign that someone is using it. If Maria was moved through here or held here even briefly, there will be something left behind.”

  Penny nods, but I can tell she is not reassured. Neither am I.

  Derek lifts a hand, signaling us to slow. He steps over a fallen log. “This is exactly why we should have pushed harder with Lila,” he says without turning around.

  My chest tightens. “We are not doing this again.”

  “She knows John,” he says. “Better than any of us.”

  “She shot at us,” I remind him.

  “She fired warning shots,” he says. “Wendy said she missed on purpose.”

  “That does not make it okay.”

  “It makes it understandable,” he says. “She thought Dylan was in danger.”

  I step over the log and nearly slip. Penny reaches back and steadies me without a word.

  “You really think you would do something like that?” I ask Derek. “Shoot at people?”

  He stops walking and turns to face me fully.

  “I would do anything to protect you,” he says.