Mag-log inYes,” Rafe said quickly, his voice steady enough even though his chest felt tight, “I am with him,” and he held Luke’s gaze while saying it so the guard would stop looking at him like he was a thief caught mid-act.The guard did not look convinced at all and his eyes flicked between Rafe and Luke several times, lingering longer on Rafe like he was trying to memorize his face for later trouble, but Luke shifted his weight and spoke with authority, telling the guard "There's no problem and if there was, I'd handle it", and eventually the guard muttered an apology and backed away, still suspicious but unwilling to push his luck.When they were alone, the quiet rushed in heavy and uncomfortable, and Luke’s polite expression dropped almost immediately, replaced with something sharp and curious as he looked Rafe up and down slowly.“So,” Luke said calmly, folding his hands behind his back, “did your new owner send you after me, or did you come snooping on your own.”Rafe stiffened at the
The car ride felt longer than it should have and Rafe sat stiffly in the backseat, listening as Dante spoke in a calm, controlled voice about positioning, timing, exits, and eyes, and Rafe nodded along even though his attention kept drifting to the way Dante’s hands moved when he talked and how close Anita sat to him, close enough that her arm brushed his whenever the car slowed, which only made Rafe answer more sharply when Dante asked if he understood the plan.“I understand,” Rafe said, adjusting his cuffs and forcing his gaze forward, “you and Anita stay visible, you stay charming, you stay important, and I stay quiet and useful.”Dante glanced at him briefly, his eyes assessing, weighing, before he nodded and said, “You will be working with the security teams, you will circulate without drawing attention, and you will not leave Luke’s orbit once I mark him for you.”“That is fine,” Rafe replied quickly, because he meant it when he said he hated events like this, hated the lights
Rafe stood in front of the mirror longer than he meant to, fully dressed in the suit Dante had given him, and it felt like the glass was showing him someone else entirely, someone stitched together from ambition and bad decisions, and he kept adjusting the cuffs even though they were already perfect just to give his hands something to do.He said quietly to his reflection, almost like testing the weight of his own voice, “You are not here for comfort. You are not here to admire anything. You are here for the inheritance. That is the only point of all of this.”The reflection stared back, expression tight, and he added, more firmly this time like he was correcting a subordinate, “Luke sent you here for access, for evidence, for collapse. That is what you do. That is what you will do.”He paused, swallowing the rising doubt that always came when Dante’s face entered his thoughts uninvited, and then he forced himself to continue, “And when it is done, you leave. Clean. No attachment. No
The convoy had changed halfway through the drive without anyone asking Rafe for permission, and by the time they returned to the hotel Dante was already in a different car, sitting like the shift in transport had matched the shift in his mood, and Rafe followed because there was no space in the situation where he was expected to choose anything differently.Inside the suite, Dante did not slow down.The door shut and he immediately pulled his phone out, threw it across the room, and it hit the wall hard enough to crack the screen.“Porca miseria (Damn it),” Dante snapped in Italian, already pacing, his voice raised in anger as he ran his hands through his hair “Avrei dovuto saperlo, avrei dovuto mantenere un basso profilo come Anita, avrei dovuto controllare l'ingresso in modo adeguato (I should have known, I should have stayed low profile like Anita, I should have controlled the entry properly).”Rafe stood near the entrance for a second, watching without speaking, not stepping in t
The drive back to the hotel had felt like it stretched itself out on purpose, like the road itself was listening, and Rafe sat there holding the file in his hands even though he already knew most of what was inside it, flipping pages just so his eyes had something to do that was not Dante.Dante had been answering calls, cutting them short, not wasting breath on anything unnecessary, but Rafe still felt it like pressure in the seat beside him, like the space between them was not empty at all but occupied by something waiting.Rafe forced himself to keep reading, eyes moving over names and dates that no longer felt new, and he said without looking up, “This file has everything I need, I am just reviewing it again to make sure I did not miss anything important,” even though the words sounded more like an excuse the moment he said them.Dante did not answer immediately, and when he finally spoke it came out calm and flat, “You are not reading it, you are avoiding something,” and Rafe’s f
Anita's BagAnita’s hotel looked nothing like the one Dante had booked for them, and Rafe noticed it immediately the moment they stepped inside the narrow hallway that smelled faintly of detergent and rotting wood and mildew.“I picked this place on purpose,” Anita said as she pushed the door open with her shoulder, already talking as if she expected commentary, “too many eyes watch expensive hotels in this city and I prefer not to announce myself every time I breathe.”Dante nodded once, scanning the room without comment.Rafe stayed by the door for a second before stepping in, glancing around with a careful neutrality he had perfected over the years.“It is smart,” he said finally, because silence felt awkward.Anita kicked off her shoes and went straight to the wardrobe, pulling it open and crouching to reach for a duffel bag hidden behind it.“Smart keeps you alive,” she replied, dragging the bag out and unzipping it on the bed, “and this keeps other people from killing you first.







