LOGINThe message came through just as Rowan stepped out of the car.
Taryn.
He’s closing it. Officially.
Rowan stared at the screen for a second longer than necessary.
Then he locked the phone and slipped it into his pocket.
The Wesley estate loomed ahead quiet, controlled, untouched by everything that had happened in the past few days. Security was tighter now. Guards posted at the gate. Cameras angled with sharper intent.
Nothing ab
The file didn’t open at first.Lennox tried once.Nothing.He tried again, slower this time, watching the screen like he was listening for something.Still nothing.Taryn shifted beside Rowan, arms folded. “I thought you said you could open it.”“I can,” Lennox replied, not looking at her. “Relax.”Rowan didn’t speak.He wasn’t watching the screen.He was watching Lennox.The way his fingers paused before pressing anything. The way his eyes moved not confused, not guessing.Familiar.Like he’d done this before.“Try again,” Rowan said.Lennox exhaled lightly, then typed something in.A second passed.Thenthe file opened.No dramatic flash.No warning.Just a quiet shift on the screen.Taryn stepped closer immediately. “That’s it?”“That
Rowan tried the file three times before he spoke.The first attempt didn’t respond.No error. No prompt. Just silence.The second rejected the input entirely, the interface collapsing before it could even load.The thirdlocked him out.Not permanently. Not aggressively.Just enough to make a point.He leaned back slightly, eyes still fixed on the screen.Thinking.Taryn stood across from him, arms folded, watching both him and the device.“That bad?” she asked.Rowan didn’t answer immediately.The storage device sat between them, small and unremarkable. It looked like nothing. It felt like anything but.“Cassian didn’t just hide it,” Rowan said finally. “He built it to resist.”Taryn stepped closer, glancing at the interface.“What are we dealing with?”“Layered encryption,” Rowan replied
Sloane Wesley didn’t knock.The door to Preston’s office opened with quiet precision, the soft click of it closing behind her barely disturbing the stillness inside.Preston didn’t look up.He sat behind his desk, reviewing a document with the same quiet focus he gave everything measured, controlled, untouched by interruption.As if nothing had changed.As if their son hadn’t vanished.Sloane stood there for a moment, watching him.Waiting.He turned a page.Adjusted the paper slightly.Completely composed.Something in her chest tightened not from grief, but from recognition.Then“You closed the case.”Preston finished the line he was reading before responding.“Yes.”No hesitation.No explanation.Sloane stepped forward slowly, heels soft against the floor.“That was fast.”Preston f
Rowan didn’t rush.That was the first thing Taryn noticed.He stepped into the house like it wasn’t empty like Cassian might still be somewhere inside, watching, waiting, expecting him to get it right.The air felt untouched.Too clean.Too still.Taryn closed the door behind them, her eyes moving instinctively across the space. “If there’s something here,” she said, “it’s not going to be obvious.”Rowan didn’t respond.He was already moving.Not searching studying.Every step was deliberate. His gaze tracked the room slowly, taking in details most people would miss. The arrangement of the furniture. The spacing. The absence of disorder.Cassian’s world had always looked like this.Controlled.Nothing out of place.Which meantanything out of place mattered.“He knew someone would come here,
The door opened without a sound.Cassian didn’t look up immediately.He felt it first the shift in the room, the change in air. Whoever stepped inside didn’t move like the others. No weight thrown around. No impatience.Controlled.Cassian lifted his head slowly.The man standing there didn’t belong to this place. No visible weapon. No urgency. Just a quiet, deliberate presence.“…you’re not one of them,” Cassian said.“No.”The answer came easily.Cassian studied him.“Then you’re either important,” he said, “or you made a mistake coming in here.”A faint smile touched the man’s lips.“I don’t make mistakes like that.”Cassian leaned back as much as the restraints allowed.“Good. Saves us time. Why are you here?”The man stepped forward, his gaze moving over C
The silence was the worst part.Not the restraints. Not the dull ache in his ribs or the slow, dragging weight in his limbs. Not even the darkness that seemed to stretch endlessly around him.It was the silence.It gave him too much time to think.Cassian leaned his head back against the cold surface behind him, eyes half-open, unfocused. The air in the room was still, heavy, untouched by anything that resembled life. Wherever they had him, it wasn’t meant to comfort.It was meant to hold.His fingers twitched faintly against the restraint at his wrist. Not enough to break free. Just enough to remind him he was still there.Still breathing.Still thinking.And that was dangerous.Because his mind kept circling back to the same moment.The moment everything shifted.The moment he should have walked awaybut didn’t.It had been late.Not unusually late for him, but late







