He took the stairs because the elevator didn’t work on a good day. Voices drifted up from below—sharp, quick, cutting off just as fast.
The metal railing vibrated faintly under his hand as he moved. A door slammed somewhere down the hall, echoing through the thin walls.
The apartment door stood open.
Not wide. Not broken. Just cracked.
Sage didn’t hesitate.
He crossed the threshold, already reading—air, sound, the way the space held itself.
The smell hit stronger inside—stale air, sweat, and something metallic threading through it. It pressed closer here, heavier, with nowhere to go.
He slipped his knife from the sheath at his back, palming the blade as he moved.
The weight settled into his hand, familiar, grounding.
It was too quiet.
But not empty. The city noise didn’t reach this far in—cut off, swallowed by the walls.
His gaze cut down the short hallway, picking up the details toward where the makeshift office was located.
Voices.
Low. Even.
Not arguing.
Not panicked.
Talking.
The sound carried strangely in the space, too contained, like the walls were holding it in. The words didn’t travel—just sat in the room.
Sage’s pace didn’t change, but something in him tightened, sharpening further as he moved toward it.
His shoulders locked a fraction tighter, breath steady but shallow.
The doorway to the office stood half open.
Sage didn’t break stride.
He cleared the frame in one smooth pass—knife up, body angled—
—and stopped.
Ashley.
Alive.
Bound to the chair in the center of the room, wrists tied behind her back, hair pulled loose around her face like someone had dragged a hand through it one too many times. Her eyes snapped to his the second he stepped in—sharp, aware, not broken. It burned through his chest and vanished before he could grab hold of it.
Relief hit fast and hard—gone just as quickly as it came.
Rook stood off to the side.
Gun low. Blood already soaking through his sleeve, dark and spreading, his posture tight but strained like he was holding himself together by force. His gaze flicked to Sage, then away just as fast. His stance favored one side, subtle but there if you knew where to look.
