LOGINI 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
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
The first hum of traffic stirs beneath the apartment, the city awakening like a great beast stretching itself from slumber. I swing my legs over the side of the bed, bare feet meeting the warmth of the hardwood with practiced silence. In the hush, I hear the measured tick of my wristwatch from acros







