ANMELDENSleep would not come.Raven lay on the couch at Sasha's apartment, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, her phone clutched in her hand. The screen was dark. The messages had stopped. But she knew they would start again. The silence was worse than the words. It was waiting. It was patient. It was watching.Sasha was asleep on the armchair across the room, her head tilted back, her mouth slightly open. She had stayed awake as long as she could, but exhaustion had finally claimed her. Raven did not blame her. She wished she could sleep too. But every time she closed her eyes, she saw the figure. The hood. The dark car. The text.You cannot hide from me.She sat up. She walked to the window. She pulled the curtain aside. The street was empty. No cars. No figures. No shadows. Just the flickering streetlight and the silent buildings.She let the curtain fall. She walked back to the couch. She lay down. She closed her eyes.The phone buzzed.She grabbed it. Her heart pounded. A new message. From t
The morning came too fast. Raven woke to the sound of Fenris moving around her apartment. She opened her eyes. He was already dressed. Dark suit. Tie. His hair was combed back. He looked like a different person. Like the man she had met at the gala. Cold. Controlled. Distant. He was packing a small bag. She sat up. "You are leaving." "I have to." "When will you be back?" "Tomorrow. Maybe the day after." "Fenris." He stopped. He turned to face her. His gray eyes were soft. "I do not want to go." "Then do not." "I have to. It is business. My father built this empire, and I have to keep it running. At least until I figure out what to do with it." She got out of bed. She walked toward him. She stopped in front of him. "I do not like this." "I know." "I do not like being alone." "You will not be alone. I will call you. I will text you. I will be back before you know it." "Promise?" "Promise." He reached out. His hand touched her face. His thumb traced h
The morning was quiet. Too quiet.Raven sat on the couch, her knees pulled to her chest, a cold mug of coffee in her hands. She had not touched it. She could not drink. Her stomach was tight. Her mind was racing. The conversation with Dante replayed in her head over and over. His cold voice. His empty eyes. The way he had said her name like it was a threat.Fenris paced in front of her. Back and forth. Back and forth. His hands were clenched. His jaw was tight. He had not slept. Neither had she. They had lain in bed together, but neither of them had closed their eyes. The weight of Dante's threat hung over them like a storm cloud."He threatened you," Fenris said. His voice was low. Rough."I know.""He sat you down in his house and told you he would make you disappear.""I know.""And you want me to do nothing?""I want you to think.""I have been thinking. That is all I have been doing. And every time I think, I get angrier."He stopped pacing. He turned to face her. His gray eyes w
The morning was quiet. Too quiet.Raven sat on the couch, her knees pulled to her chest, her phone in her hand. Fenris was beside her, his arm draped over her shoulders, his thumb tracing lazy circles on her arm. They had not spoken much since the night before. There was nothing left to say. Everything had been said. Everything had been broken. Everything had been rebuilt.But the silence was not peaceful. It was waiting.She knew something was coming. She could feel it. The air was thick with it. The calm before the storm.Her phone buzzed.She looked at the screen. An unknown number. She hesitated. She almost did not answer."Raven."The voice on the other end was smooth. Calculated. Familiar. She had only heard it once before, but she would never forget it.Dante Vlad.Her blood ran cold. Her hand tightened around the phone."Mr. Vlad.""I would like to invite you to dinner tonight. At my home. There is something we need to discuss.""Discuss?""Yes. About my son. About your relati
The drive to Harvey's apartment felt longer than it was.Fenris gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white. The city blurred past him. The lights smeared into streaks of gold and red. He did not see any of it. He saw only Harvey's face. He heard only Harvey's voice. He replayed the phone call over and over in his head.He knows we were together last night.He knows you stayed.He knows everything.He parked outside Harvey's building. He did not bother with the parking lot. He left the car in the middle of the street. He walked through the lobby. He did not wait for the elevator. He took the stairs. Three floors. Two at a time. His heart was pounding. His hands were shaking.He pushed open the door to Harvey's apartment. It was unlocked. Harvey was sitting on the couch, a glass of wine in his hand, his gray eyes calm. He looked like he had been waiting."Fenris," he said. "I was wondering when you would get here.""Tell me it is not true.""Tell you what is not true?""
The morning light was gray and thin, slipping through the blinds like water through cracked glass. Raven lay still, her cheek pressed against Fenris's chest, his arm wrapped around her waist. His heartbeat was steady beneath her ear. Slow. Calm. Alive. She did not move. She did not want to wake him. She did not want to break whatever fragile thing had settled between them in the night. He had held her like she was the only thing keeping him alive. He had whispered her name like a prayer. He had kissed her forehead, her cheek, her lips. Soft. Tender. Like he was afraid she would disappear. She had stayed. She had held him back. She had let herself be held. But the weight of everything else was still there. The fire. The bodies. The truth. The USB drive. The proof. The knowledge that the man holding her had killed her parents. She closed her eyes. She tried to push it away. She could not. She slipped out of bed. Her feet touched the cold floor. She grabbed his shirt from the chair
The hallway was longer than she expected, lined with paintings and photographs, the floors dark wood, the walls stone. Raven walked slowly, her bare feet silent on the cold floor, her fingers trailing along the wall. The mansion was quiet, peaceful, nothing like the chaos of the night before.She f
The memory card sat on her desk for three days.Raven looked at it every morning when she woke up and every night before she went to bed. She had opened the files once, scanned the transactions, seen the date that matched the fire. But she had not dug deeper. She had not let herself believe.Becaus
The address Sasha had sent was in the suburbs, a quiet neighborhood where every house looked the same. Identical lawns. Identical driveways. Identical cars. The kind of place where people went to disappear, to live out their years in peace, to forget whatever they had done before.Raven parked on t
The apartment was dark when she got home. Raven did not turn on the lights. She walked to her desk in the darkness, sat down, and stared at the wall. The photographs of her family stared back. Her father. Her mother. Her brothers. Twelve faces, frozen in time, all of them gone.She thought about th







