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A soft chime sounded from the security panel on the wall. On the monitor, the private elevator opened, and Lucian and Scarlett stepped out.

The room fell silent.

A few seconds later, they entered the office laughing and still looking at each other as they crossed the threshold.

Scarlett wore a cream sweater, her red hair loose around her shoulders, and her cheeks flushed. Lucian’s hand rested around her waist. They looked newly married, well-rested, and completely lost in each other.

I liked seeing my brother happy. He’d spent too many years without it.

When we’d first moved to the city, Lucian had been twenty years old, brilliant and wide-eyed, in love with everything Manhattan had to offer before it had time to hurt him. Then Ciara happened, and my brother locked parts of himself away so tightly I wasn’t sure anyone would ever reach them again.

Then Lucian noticed our faces, and his smile vanished before the office door closed behind them.

“What happened?” he barked.

Gabriel lifted a hand. “Welcome back, lovebirds.”

Scarlett’s gaze moved from Gabriel to me. “That bad?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to.” Lucian looked at Nik, then back at me, and the happy husband disappeared behind the managing partner of Xyst. “Tell me.”

I moved from the window to just behind Nik’s shoulder.

Nik tapped the tablet, and the main screen filled with the files Isabella had brought into Xyst after the wedding.

Lucian guided Scarlett into the chair beside Lacey, then picked up the second tablet Nik had left on the table. He remained behind her with one hand resting on her shoulder while he studied the documents.

“While you two were wrapped up in wedding bliss,” Gabriel said, “a city attorney tried to gut us.”

Lucian’s eyes didn’t leave the screen. “What city attorney?”

“Isabella Delgado,” I said. “New York City Law Department, special enforcement. She came in after the reception with two Sixth Precinct uniforms, a liquor-license suspension, a City enforcement action, and a private civil suit tied to an alleged sexual assault.”

Lucian turned his head slowly.

The look he gave me would’ve worried a smarter man.

His jaw hardened. “Who sent her?”

“Andrew Hayes and Ciro Delgado are behind the hit,” Nik said. “The civil plaintiff, Sarah Farris, works under an escort alias connected to Whitaker’s Leon Brands network.”

Scarlett’s face blanched at her father’s name, but her eyes stayed on Nik. Her fingers curled against the edge of the table.

“Of course my father is involved.”

Lucian’s grip tightened on her shoulder. “Scar.”

“No.” She drew a breath and released it slowly. “It’s fine.”

“It isn’t.”

“I know.” Her voice stayed calm, which made it worse. “But pretending Andrew won’t keep using every institution he can to come after us doesn’t make him disappear. He survived. He’s angry. And now he has a bullet wound he can show voters while he tells them men like you are the reason this city needs saving.”

Lucian looked ready to find Hayes and finish what he’d started.

I didn’t blame him.