Neither am I.
I set the plate on the desk. Roast chicken, bread, cheese.
“Eat.”
She stares at the food. Then at me.
“You brought me dinner?”
“You haven’t eaten all day.” I pull the chair around to her side of the desk. Sit close enough that our knees graze. “Eat, Cassia. That’s not a request.”
Her brow furrows. Her focus searches mine, back and forth, looking for the trap. Then her shoulders drop half an inch. Her fingers unclench from the pen.
Dio.
She picks up the bread. Takes a bite. Chews with care, watching me like I might disappear.
“The discrepancies,” I say, because I need a reason to look at the page instead of the movement of her throat when she swallows. “Show me what you found.”
Between bites, she walks me through the pattern. Someone skimming twelve percent off every transaction for at least six months. Shell companies in the Caymans.
A paper trail that goes cold right where it shouldn’t.
Forensic precision that could save an empire or destroy one.
I tell her so.
Her cheeks flush. She deflects like the compliment is a weapon aimed at her.
“Anyone could have found it with enough time.”
“They didn’t. You did.”
She looks away. Tucks hair behind her left ear. That tell I’ve memorized without meaning to.
We work through the numbers together. I pull vendor contracts from the files. She cross-references payment dates. Our shoulders brush when we both lean toward the same document, and that brief contact burns like a brand.
She doesn’t pull away.
Neither do I.
The hours slide by. The grandfather clock marks time we’re both ignoring. She finishes the food, and my grip on my own glass loosens. I didn’t realize I’d been holding it that tight.
Around 3:00 a.m., her voice starts to slow. Her sentences drift. She’s explaining routing numbers when her head dips, catches, dips again.
“Cassia.”
“I’m fine.” But her eyes are half-closed. “The third shell company. If we can trace the original incorporation documents, we might find the source.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Just a few more pages.”
Her head tips sideways. Lands against my shoulder.
I go still. Every muscle locked.
She’s warm. So warm. Her body settles against me like it belongs there. Her breathing evens out. Deepens.
