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Chapter 20: Tell

Penulis: Ivy White
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-08-04 15:39:59
Julian's POV

I washed the yard dirt off my hands before anyone else could see it there.

Small habit. Necessary one. A man in my position couldn't afford to walk back into a meeting with grass stains on his knees and no explanation for where he'd been. I checked my reflection in the small mirror above the sink, straightened my collar, and found nothing out of place. Nothing that would have told anyone I'd spent the last hour sitting on cold concrete talking to a man who had no idea who he was a
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  • The Shape Of Obsession   Chapter 32: Pressure

    Miles's POV "You're asking the wrong people the wrong questions." Vincent said it quietly, without looking up from the inventory sheet he was pretending to read, and I understood immediately that word had already reached him about the conversation I'd had in the laundry room two days earlier. "I asked one guy if he knew anything about university endowments. That's it." "You asked a man with three drug charges and a gambling debt whether he'd ever heard of a research board. In a room with six other people listening." Vincent finally looked at me, and there was nothing warm in it. "That's not subtle. That's a flare fired straight up." "I needed a name checked. He was the only one who'd talk to me without wanting something first." "He'll want something now. That's how men like that work. You just handed him a reason to think you're worth selling out." "I'm not going to sit on this." "You're going to sit on it until I tell you it's safe not to." "You keep saying that like there's

  • The Shape Of Obsession   Chapter 31: The Truth Behind the Room

    Julian's POV "You're quiet today," Vincent said. "That's not like you." We were in the back office above the warehouse on Ninth, the one with the windows painted black and the only camera feed that answered to me. I hadn't sat down since I'd walked in. I didn't sit down now. Outside, the city kept doing what it always did at this hour, indifferent to whatever had happened inside a prison forty minutes north of it. "How did the meeting go?" "The meeting went the way it needed to go." "That's not an answer." "It's the only one you're getting tonight." Vincent knew me well enough not to push on the things that didn't matter. He also knew me well enough to recognize when something did. He set down the folder he'd been holding and looked at me with the particular patience he reserved for conversations he'd already decided not to walk away from. "He asked exactly what I expected him to ask," I said. "He's smarter than the men I usually deal with. That's not new information." "Then

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    Miles's POV Vincent was already waiting by my bunk when the block opened for morning work detail, arms crossed, watching the door like he'd been standing there longer than he wanted anyone to notice, patient in the way that usually meant bad news. "You're riding out tonight." "Good morning to you too." He didn't so much as blink at that. "The truck going through the east gate. You're on it." I set down the tray I'd been carrying and studied him for a second, trying to read whatever was sitting behind that flat expression. Vincent showing up before breakfast meant this wasn't something that could wait for the yard, and that alone told me more than anything he'd actually said. "What's the job?" "Ride with the shipment. It runs through the east gate to the second checkpoint, handed off to a broker named Reyes. You make the delivery." He paused, long enough for it to register as deliberate. "And you pay attention to him while you're there." "Observe what, exactly?" "Faces. Vehicle

  • The Shape Of Obsession   Chapter 29: Aftermath

    Julian's POV The phone rang once before I picked it up. "It's done," Vincent said. "The meeting's over." "Is Dominic still there?" "No. He's already clear of the building. On his way to you now." "Anyone see him come or go?" "No one who matters. He used the east corridor, same as we'd planned it out." "And Miles?" "Back in his block before anyone would have thought to look for him. Composed, far as I could tell from the corridor after. Nothing went wrong on my end. He didn't linger, didn't make a scene walking out." That was the entire report Vincent could give me, and I didn't ask for more, because there wasn't more he was in a position to know. Vincent had stood outside a locked door the whole time, no more able to hear through it than Miles could see through it. Whatever had happened inside that room belonged to Dominic to tell, not him. "Call me the moment he arrives." I set the phone down. I'd been outside Blackgate two days now, the warden's paperwork listing me as a t

  • The Shape Of Obsession   Chapter 28: Weight

    Miles's POV "Where did you get that?" Vincent's voice had lost its usual flatness, and for the first time since I'd known him, I watched him cross a room like the floor might give out beneath him. Whatever composure he usually kept folded around himself had slipped, just for a second, before he caught it and pulled it back into place. "From him," I said. "The man I just met." "He gave you this himself?" "Is that a problem?" Vincent reached for the page and I pulled it back before his fingers closed around it, some instinct telling me not to hand over the one piece of leverage I'd walked out of that room with. The instinct was older than Blackgate, older than fear, something primal that recognized the difference between holding power and having it taken from you. His jaw tightened, the same small tell I'd learned to catch months ago, back when catching it had still felt like an accomplishment instead of a habit I couldn't switch off anymore. For half a second I saw what he looked

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    Miles's POV "Sit." That was the first word out of his mouth. No greeting, no name, nothing to soften the command into a request. The room was smaller than I'd expected, plain walls, a metal desk, a single lamp casting light across a surface bare except for a closed folder. No windows. No decoration. Just enough furniture to hold a conversation and nothing that could be used against him if that conversation went badly. Whoever had built this room had thought about exactly one thing, and it wasn't comfort. The man himself wasn't what I'd built in my head either. Broad through the shoulders, dark suit that fit like it had been made for exactly this body, a face carved into stillness so complete it looked practiced rather than natural. He watched me the way a man watches something he's already finished deciding about, patient in a way that had nothing warm in it at all. I sat. "You wanted this meeting," he said. "You have it. Use it well." His voice matched the room, flat and unhur

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