Chapter 9

**ARIA**

A knock pulled me out of my daze.

I'd been sitting on the edge of the bed for what felt like hours, staring into nothing.

I got up and opened up the door.

It wasn't Lydia.

She was the first person I expected since no one else came here.

It was a man.

Tall, broad shouldered and unhurried, maybe late thirties.

He didn't speak. Neither did I.

Slowly, he held out a tablet and a slim silver bracelet without a word.

I looked at both. Then at him.

"What for?" I asked.

He didn't answer me, hands still extended.

"I won't just take it from you," I said, like trying to clarify him.

Did he think I was some pet or something?

He exhaled deeply through his nose. Like I was testing his patience.

The audacity.

"House security," he said finally. "The bracelet is for your protection. Take it."

My breath caught.

For my protection? Protection from what?

I didn't say it out loud. I simply complied.

I took the bracelet from him. It was slim and silver and very pretty. What sort of protection could it-

Then I realised.

"GPS," I said flatly.

He said nothing.

Which was all the confirmation I needed.

I put it on. Not because I wanted to. But because starting an argument with a 6ft tall man by 10pm was dumb. Very dumb.

I took the tablet from his still outstretched hand.

"Read everything on there," he said. "And Mr. Black wants you ready by eight."

I scrolled through it.

The first page was a list of rules. No explanation. Just blunt rules I was supposed to follow for the next one year of my life.

One: I would accompany Jade to all business meetings as his personal assistant effective immediately.

Two: I was to observe people, read situations, and report anything suspicious directly to Jade.

Three: My movements would be tracked at all times via GPS in the bracelet.

Four: I was not to speak unless directly addressed in any professional setting.

Five: Any violation would be handled at Jade's discretion.

I set the tablet down on the bed and sat beside it.

These weren't rules for a maid. It was something else. Something that made my pulse race just by the thought of it.

He turned to leave.

"Viktor Kane."

The words left my mouth before I had fully decided to say them. "Who is he? Because I keep... hearing that name..."

He stopped

For a moment I genuinely thought he would just keep walking. Ignore me as usual like I've always been.

But he didn't.

He turned back slightly and looked at me with an expression somewhere between warning and something almost like pity.

It made my stomach turn.

"Kane Industries," he said. "Viktor Kane. Runs half the city's underground economy behind a clean corporate front. Legitimate on paper." A pause. "He and Mr. Black were partners once. Long time ago."

"What happened?" I asked, wanting to know more.

"It ended."

"Ended how?"

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Ask Mr. Black." He nodded once. "Eight o'clock."

And then he was gone.

I was alone again.

I wasn't going ask Mr. Black about it, because then I'd have to start explaining how I even heard of it.

I clicked off the tablet and lay back in the dark, the bracelet cool and unfamiliar against my wrist.

I stared at the ceiling until my eyes closed on their own.

---

I was awake at 5:30.

Not because of any alarm or because Lydia came banging on the door.

My eyes just opened and my body decided that was enough sleep and there was nothing I could do about it.

The room was still dark, just the faintest grey beginning at the edges of the city skyline beyond the windows. I sat up, yawning as I ran my fingers through my hair.

By 7:45 I was dressed and ready for whatever my boss needed me for.

Lydia had not come, so I put on what I wanted. I made my own decision on what to wear and it felt... good.

I had gone through the closet slowly, pushing past everything designed to make me look like something rather than someone, until I found a fitted black dress. It was still too short, but compared to the rags there, it was professional.

I put it on, looked at myself in the mirror and walked out the door.

I was downstairs before 8:00am, so I waited.

The penthouse was quiet in the mornings in a way it never was at night. No heels clicking down corridors. No doors opening and closing somewhere distant.

8:05.

8:10.

At 8:20 I heard footsteps on the stairs.

He came down in a white suit.

Perfectly tailored the way everything he owned was. He should have looked sharp and composed and completely untouchable.

He did not.

His eyes were heavy, dragging slightly at the edges. Not tired exactly but the kind of drained that a full night's sleep might not have fixed anyway.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed the living room without looking at me, moving toward the kitchen. I heard the low sound of the coffee machine. A pause. Then he came back through with a cup he was already drinking from and that was when his gaze found me.

It moved over my outfit once. Slow. I could feel every bit of it.

He said nothing about it.

"Let's go."

His voice was as tired as he looked.

I followed him toward the front of the penthouse where the man from yesterday was already waiting by the door with Jade's briefcase.

He threw me a glance and looked away immediately.

Jade took the briefcase from him without a word and walked out the door the man held open.

I could hear the engine of the car humming as we approached it.

It was a different car from the one that picked me up.

He got in, and I followed suit, trying my best to be as invisible as possible.

---

His company headquarters was the kind of building that did not need to try. It just stood at the top of the skyline and everything around it adjusted accordingly.

The car pulled into a private underground entrance.

He got down, and I did too.

I kept pace beside him and said nothing as we walked.

The elevator opened directly into a reception area on the forty-eighth floor that was all white marble and understated lighting and the kind of quiet that expensive buildings have.

A woman at the desk stood the moment she saw Jade.

"Mr. Black. The board is ready for you in the main conference room."

He nodded once and kept walking.

I followed two steps behind the way I had learned to and watched the way every person we passed responded before he even opened his mouth. Some straightened. Some suddenly found reasons to be somewhere else.

The conference room was enormous, the glass table stretching nearly the length of the room.

Twelve people were already seated. All of them in suits that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe before it became irrelevant.

I took my place against the wall behind Jade's chair, hands folded, silent, exactly as the rules required.

And I watched.

But people kept glancing at me.

Not obviously. Not all at once. I just felt it. Eyes sliding toward me and sliding away too quickly. An attention that had nothing to do with curiosity about who the new assistant was.

One man especially.

Tall. Silver haired. The kind of sharp featured that had probably been handsome once and had settled into something more calculated with age. He sat three seats from Jade's right and every single time I looked up he was already watching me.

Not the way men usually watched women.

The way people looked at things they were quietly deciding what to do with.

I kept my face neutral and my eyes moving and said absolutely nothing.

---

The meeting ended and the room began to empty around us.

He waited until the last person had gone and the glass door had closed behind them.

He signalled me to follow him.

I did, heels clinking against the marble.

He walked to the windows and stood there for a moment looking out at the city.

"Did you notice the silver haired man at the table?" he asked, not looking away from the window.

Of course I did, he didn't keep his eyes off me throughout the meeting.

"Yes, yes I did."

"His name is Marcus Reed." Something moved behind his eyes, brief and unreadable. "My head of security. Has been for eight years." He held my gaze. "If anything happens to me you go to him immediately. No questions. No waiting. You go."

I stared at him. "Happens to you? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Something is about to go wrong." His voice was quiet but the weight behind every word filled the room. "I can feel it. When it does you follow Marcus without question and you do not try to handle anything yourself." A pause. His eyes did not leave mine. "Do you understand me?"

My breathing turned jagged.

What was he saying?

"I understand," I said.

Jade held my gaze one beat longer than felt comfortable.

Then he nodded once, turned, and walked toward the door.

"Come," he said without looking back.

And I followed him out.

---

That night I lay in the dark, bracelet cool against my wrist, city lights bleeding soft through the curtains.

I felt watched even now. Even here. Even alone behind a locked door.

The penthouse had felt like a gilded cage when I arrived.

Now it felt like something else entirely.

Like a target.

I shifted under the blankets, trying to sleep.

The bracelet on my wrist suddenly vibrated.

I lifted my arm in the darkness.

A red warning blinked across the tiny screen.

PERIMETER BREACH DETECTED.