Jasmine’s POVTristan moved to follow me into the back room. I stretched my arm across the doorway, and he stopped.I looked at him sideways, holding his gaze for two seconds. I did not explain myself, and he did not ask me to. Whatever he saw in my expression was enough—the same expression he had learned to read in a midnight kitchen and a dark gym and a compound hallway after Jeff’s arm went wrong. After a moment, I lowered my arm and stepped through the door.Marshall was mine to face.This was not about power or punishment. I was not trying to prove that I could handle him without Tristan, and I had no interest in turning this into another contest over who was capable of protecting whom. The operation did not need a performance. Marc did not need a story about his mother winning a fight to feel safe. Tristan did not need to watch me settle an old account in order to believe I could stand in a war.Marshall belonged to a part of my life that existed before the operation, before the
Last Updated : 2026-10-24 Read more