lexandr

ike evidence, useful when controll

started to feel like a l

ys had been a blur of trials, strategy meetings, and late nights at chambers.

sn't

A voice that still lingered in my head

rtmentalizing. But every time I glanced at a news headline, there he was a

e, my stomach tightened like

day morning wh

l me you're not i

id, stepping out of t

ething about legal insight for his company.

-step. "He

told him you're brilliant an

nterest, I told myself. A conversation betwee

p down, I already

id. "Text me

hey didn't want to be photographed. Damian was already there when I arriv

me, buttoning his j

aid, taking the

ring which version of me had arrived, the b

said finally. "I wanted to discuss some

sp, but there was an undercurrent, a qui

flipping open my ta

way he watched me, not like a man admiring a woman, but like a strategist studyin

was intellectual sparri

. It felt

passed me a document. The contact was br

ered just a second too lo

etween us

change everything or destroy everything. I need so

don't strike me as

ou don't strike me as

between us: taut,

"Lydia tells me you d

t discuss personal m

t your

ven less you

g, just... knowing. "You're f

ce steady. "And

es dark and unread

sharp, grounding, necessary. I gat

f that's all, I'll have my

"Thank you f

n in parting, neither of us

quietly. "You look like someone

k what he meant. That ni

th happiness. "He said he's never met anyone who challeng

ed. "He s

u, Alex. I think that's w

. "Lydia... he's l

romise me you'll help him with the

about it,"

in the dark, the city pu

ts you

ed louder than t

ic, something dangerous was taking root

ration, it was

beginning

I didn't stop it now, i