Chapter three

The first threat came quietly.  

No alarms.  

No explosions.  

Just a subtle shift in Luca’s awareness that made the hair on his arms rise.  

He noticed it while Damon was reviewing contracts in his private office, sunlight spilling across polished floors and glass walls. Luca stood near the door, arms loosely crossed, posture relaxed.  

But his eyes never stopped moving.  

There was a rhythm to security.  

Footsteps.  

Elevator hum.  

Air circulation.  

That rhythm broke.  

Luca’s gaze snapped to the far balcony.  

A shadow moved where nothing should have moved.  

He was already moving before thought caught up.  

“Down.”  

Damon barely had time to look up before Luca crossed the room in two strides and shoved him sideways.  

The suppressed crack of a rifle echoed a split second later.  

Glass exploded.  

Damon hit the floor hard, with Luca’s body covering his, one arm braced over Damon’s head, the other already drawing his sidearm.  

They lay tangled on the marble, Luca’s chest pressed against Damon’s back, breath hot against his ear.  

“Don’t move,” Luca murmured.  

Damon froze.  

Luca rolled them both behind the desk, firing twice toward the balcony. He triggered the emergency lockdown with his wrist comm, then scanned Damon’s body with quick, efficient hands.  

“Are you hit?”  

“No,” Damon whispered. “I no.”  

Good.  

Luca exhaled slowly.  

Security flooded in seconds later, weapons raised, shouting coordinates into their comms. The shooter was gone by the time they reached the balcony.  

Professional.  

Clean.  

Someone was testing defenses.  

Damon remained seated on the floor long after the room cleared, knees drawn up, hands trembling despite his effort to control them.  

Luca crouched in front of him.  

“You’re safe.”  

Damon laughed weakly.  

“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”  

Luca hesitated, then placed a steady hand on Damon’s shoulder.  

The contact was meant to ground him.  

Instead, it grounded Luca.  

Damon looked up.  

Their faces were suddenly far too close.  

Luca saw everything the grief etched into Damon’s eyes, the exhaustion he tried to hide, the sharp intelligence wrapped in vulnerability.  

Damon saw the scar on Luca’s jaw, the tightly coiled restraint in his posture, and the way his hand never strayed far from his weapon.  

“You saved me,” Damon said quietly.  

“It’s my job.”  

“No,” Damon replied. “You didn’t hesitate.”  

Luca didn’t answer.  

Because he had.  

Just not in the way Damon thought.  

That night, Damon refused sedatives.  

He sat on the edge of his bed while Luca took position near the door.  

“You don’t have to stay in here,” Damon said.  

Luca shook his head. “Protocol.”  

Damon studied him for a moment.  

“Tell me something real about you.”  

Luca’s jaw tightened.  

“There’s nothing real to tell.”  

Damon didn’t look away. “Everyone has something.”  

Silence stretched between them.  

Finally, Luca said, “I grew up moving a lot.”  

“Military family?”  

“No.”  

Damon waited.  

Luca didn’t elaborate.  

“Do you have anyone?” Damon asked softly.  

Luca’s throat worked.  

“No.”  

The word landed heavier than it should have.  

Damon nodded, understanding too well.  

They were two men alone in a fortress of glass and steel.  

“I used to think control meant safety,” Damon said. “Now I don’t know what anything means.”  

Luca watched him carefully.  

“You’re still standing.”  

Damon gave a tired smile. “That doesn’t mean I’m okay.”  

Something in Luca cracked.  

He moved closer before he could stop himself, sitting on the edge of the bed, close enough that their knees brushed.  

“You don’t have to be okay,” Luca said quietly. “You just have to survive.”  

Damon’s gaze dropped to Luca’s mouth.  

The air changed.  

Luca felt it instantly.  

He stood abruptly.  

“That was too close,” Luca said.  

Damon swallowed.  

“Thank you for today.”  

Luca nodded once and returned to his post.  

But sleep didn’t come for either of them.  

Across the city, Adrian watched the drone footage of the failed hit.  

His jaw tightened.  

“You’re losing control,” Adrian told Luca through their secure channel.  

“It wasn’t our team.”  

“I don’t care.”  

Adrian leaned forward.  

“You’re getting attached.”  

Luca closed his eyes.  

“He’s not the target anymore,” Luca said.  

There was a pause.  

Then Adrian laughed softly.  

“Everyone is a target.”  

The line went dead.  

The next morning, Damon woke to headlines.  

BILLIONAIRE CEO NARROWLY ESCAPES ASSASSINATION  

Photos of shattered glass and armed guards flooded every screen.  

Matteo arrived within the hour, offering reassurance and strategic advice.  

Damon listened, but his attention kept drifting to Luca, who stood silently by the door.  

Something about Luca felt different today.  

Tighter.  

More distant.  

Later, when Damon tried to access internal security logs, he found them altered.  

Redacted.  

Permissions rerouted.  

He frowned.  

Someone was manipulating his systems.  

And Luca his impossible, dangerous bodyguard had appeared in his life at exactly the wrong time.  

That night, Damon ran a deeper background trace on Luca Raines.  

The system spun.  

Then returned a single, chilling result:  

NO RECORD FOUND.  

Damon leaned back in his chair, heart pounding.  

A man with no past had just saved his life.  

And Damon suddenly realized 

He had invited a ghost into his home.  

  

Damon stared at the blank screen, pulse roaring in his ears.  

Outside his office, Luca stood guard, unaware that Damon had just discovered he didn’t exist.