Not even to survive.
And when she did,everything else would burn.
?
The murmur of conversation drifted down the hall as Gideon closed the heavy door to his office, sealing off the curated world outside.
The club was thriving tonight—glimmering with wealth, whispered deals, indulgence in full swing. But here, in the dim quiet of leather and polished wood, different rules applied.
He leaned over his desk, papers scattered like fallen battleground maps. One folder caught his eye. WV, stamped in bold across the tab. Inside: deeds, legal filings, and a paper trail of quiet devastation.
His family’s legacy, spelled out in partition sales and manipulated loopholes.
They called it strategy.
He called it what it was: theft.
Tension pulsed at his jaw as he skimmed the edge of a particularly incriminating page.
A sharp knock broke the silence. Confident. Controlled.
Not Marco’s polite tap. Not his brother’s heavy pound.
“Come in,” he said, voice level despite the weight spread across his desk.
The door eased open.
Arden stepped inside, leaning against the frame, arms folded, a faint challenge tugging at the corner of her mouth.
She didn’t need to speak to shift the atmosphere.
“Are we committing to maximum gloom in here,” she asked, “or is this brooding aesthetic intentional?”
He allowed a small smile. “I prefer ‘sanctuary.’”
She moved farther in, and something in the room tilted with her.
Her eyes swept over the space, cataloging, calculating. Missing nothing.
He watched her take in the late nights etched across his desk, the scattered signs of purpose behind the power.
“I was beginning to think you were a myth,” she said lightly. “Only appearing when summoned by emergencies or obscure whiskey requests.”
“And yet, here you are,” he murmured. “Daring to approach the cave.”
“Someone’s got to make sure you haven’t turned to stone.”
She dropped into the chair opposite him, effortless and alert. That balance of comfort and caution she wore so well.
Her gazed movedto the folder.
“What’s that?”
His first instinct was to redirect, to shut the moment down.
But the clarity in her eyes gave him pause.
Arden didn’t flinch from hard truths.
