MasukI back the video up, frame by frame, hunting for a detail. There’s nothing—no badge, no tell, not even a limp or a stutter. “They were in and out in eleven minutes,” Lucas says. “Knew the path, the timing, and how long the window would hold before a sweep.”I let the video play out. The intruder exi
For a split second, my heart actually slows. The world narrows to the width of the keyboard. I inhale, steady, then exhale through my teeth. I let the animal in me have a moment, then put her back in the box.I press the palm of my left-hand flat to the table, feel the pulse through wood, through th
The air moves in microcurrents, shivering with each movement, each breath. I can feel Lucas behind me, silent but not still—he’s scanning, running contingency on every possible outcome. I taste the air again, and the foreign note is closer now, almost alive. It’s not fear. It’s intent.I turn back t
Rain stalks the glass like it wants in, wind corralling every bead into rows so uniform the city beyond blurs to a smear of motion. I’m at the heart of it—forty-fifth floor, war room at midnight, monitors throwing blue arteries of light over a table knifed with files and half-drunk coffee. There are
I return, silent, to the main office. I stand in the doorway and watch him, two meters away and yet already in a separate reality. He doesn’t look up, not right away. When he finally does, it’s with a professional, neutral expression, as if nothing in the world is amiss. “Find what you needed?” he
Lucas doesn’t leave. He waits, patient, the way a dog might at the edge of a clearing, watching for the signal that the hunt is over. I clear my throat, tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “If you could put the audit manifests over there—” I gesture with the pen at the margin of my desk, a patch o
The lock clicks behind me as I slip into the office. I am the wolf, even in tailored business attire. Even with it all wrapped up so tight. The edge of my existence cuts deep. The aftertaste of the night clings to my senses, a raw, metallic tang that I cannot swallow away. My steps falter, then re
There is a freedom in it, a temptation that digs claws deep into my resolve and leaves it ragged and bleeding. I have spent a lifetime restraining the urge, tightening the leash until it bites into my own flesh. But the promise of release is a seductive whisper, its breath warm against my neck, its
The crosswalk sign flashes red as I approach, an unwavering command to stop, to wait, to hold. I heed it, just this once. There is no harm in pausing when I know what lies ahead. The penthouse is a world apart from the one I now move through, but I carry pieces of it with me, fragments of luxury an
The lock clicks behind me, each sound an echoing note of freedom. I inhale the promise of the morning and the heavy shroud of Derek’s latest message unfurls in the back of my mind. I will not think about it, about him, until I must. The weight of obligation falls away as I step forward, closing the







