Marco’s mouth curved in agreement. But then his gaze flicked toward the entrance, expression sharpening.
“Incoming,” he murmured.
She didn’t have to look.
Sebastian Hawthorne and Alex Blackwell entered the room like they were stepping onto a stage they believed they owned. And maybe they did.
The air changed—dense, charged. Conversations lowered. A ripple passed through the room.
Sebastian wore his charm like tailored armor, all glint and polish.
Alex was colder, smug indifference sharpened into something moredangerous.
As they crossed the floor, Alex’s gaze passed over Gideon and lingered fraction too long. He offered a slight nod. Not respectful. Provocative.
It made Arden’s fingers curl around the edge of the bar.
“They’ve been around more lately,” Marco said quietly, though his voice carried a note that made her stomach tighten.
Arden didn’t respond right away. She focused on straightening the whiskey bottles, ignoring Sebastian’s gaze from across the room, slow and speculative.
“Family business,” she said after a moment, the words brittle on her tongue.
Whatever had brought them here, it wasn’t loyalty. And it sure as hell wasn’t family.
Her hand hovered near the Blanton’s, Gideon’s bourbon of choice. The bottle was nearly empty. Strange. He hadn’t ordered it in days.
But she’d felt him.
Always nearby.
Watching.
Waiting.
A presence that unsettled the air without saying a word.
And it should’ve unnerved her.
Maybe it did.
But it wasn’t the same as roses left in break rooms. Or a bracelet clasped wrong. Or a journal nudged just enough to be noticed.
This wasn’t threat masked as affection.
This was something worse.
Possibility.
Something she hadn’t decided whether to fear or want.
Later,as the night waned and the last patrons trickled out, Arden felt it again—that shift in the air. A prickle along her skin.
His gaze.
This time, when their eyes met across the dim expanse of The Blackwell Room, neither of them looked away.
The moment stretched, silent and charged. A held breath. A storm gathering at the edges of something unspoken.
