Dan tilted his head, faint amusement sparking. “Classic. Let them feel clever while you walk away with the kingdom.”
Gideon didn’t react. Didn’t need to. Dan wasn’t wrong.
“It’s leverage,” he said simply. “Let them keep their pride. We keep the deal.”
Dan’s expression sobered as he passed over a second sheet. “Thorpe’s circling. Nothing concrete yet, but they’re sniffing.”
Gideon’s jaw ticked. Thorpe. He hated their kind: ruthless without precision, all appetite and no discipline. “They won’t get their foot in. Accelerate the close. Forty-eight hours, max.”
Dan nodded, but didn’t look up. “Evelyn’s been asking questions again.”
The room cooled.
Gideon’s grip on the folder tightened slightly. “She’s always watching,” he said, voice flat. “I’ll handle it.”
Dan didn’t press. He knew where to push, and where to fall back. That’s what made him invaluable. “I’ll loop in Andrew,” he said. “Get it wrapped.”
Gideon nodded, focus shifting again. Strategy. Reputation. Damage control.
He hadn’t thought of West Virginia in days, until now…
?
Later, in his office above The Blackwell Room, the city stretched beneath him like a promise he’d already conquered. The low hum of the club downstairs bled through the walls: muffled bass, laughter, movement.
This space usually gave him clarity: the dark wood, the glass, the bourbon. All of it designed to silence the noise.
But tonight, his thoughts were loud.
Arden Rivers.
She’d surfaced again. Not in memory, but in sensation.
Sharp wit. Controlled fire. A voice like velvet and smoke: unrushed, grounded, real.
Not flashy. Not performed. Just hers.
She hadn’t tried to charm him.
She hadn’tneeded to.
She didn’t pretend to be impressed. She looked right through him.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. The way her voice dipped when she warned him not to play favorites. The way she’d stepped into chaos like it was familiar ground. Like she’d done it before. Like she didn’t flinch.
His grip tightened around the glass in his hand.
She shouldn’t be in his head. One night. One bar. One conversation.
But she’d unsettled something.
It wasn’t lust. Lust, he could ignore.
Thiswas more dangerous.
She challenged him. And he didn’t know what to do with that.
His phone buzzed.
