"Hoodie, baseball cap, face turned away from every camera angle," Clara muttered, scrubbing through security footage frame by frame. "He knows exactly where the cameras are."I leaned over her shoulder, watching a shadowy figure lurk across the street from her apartment building. Could be Derek. Probably was Derek. But you couldn't prove it from the footage."Same build though," I said. "Same height.""'Same build' doesn't hold up in court." Clara zoomed in on the figure's face. Still nothing but shadow and hat brim. "I have a restraining order. He's clearly violating it. But without clear identification, the cops won't do shit."It was early morning, and we'd been at this since dawn, barely six hours after the... bedroom activities.Clara, however, had gone full hacker mode. Eyes bloodshot, coffee mug permanently attached to her hand, hunting Derek through every piece of digital evidence she could find."What about the texts he sent?" I asked. "The photos of your building?""Sent fro

Thursday morning arrived with all the subtlety of a brick through a window when my phone alarm went off at 7 AM. I silenced it before it could wake Clara and Jade.My phone buzzed. A delivery notification.The suit had arrived.I got up and retrieved the package from the front door.The suit was perfect. Perfectly tailored, perfectly pressed, perfectly terrifying.I tried it on in the bathroom.It fit like it was made for me. Which, technically, it was.I looked in the mirror."Who the hell are you?" I asked my reflection.My reflection didn't answer, which was probably for the best.***The day crawled by with agonizing slowness. Every hour felt like three. Every minute, an eternity.At around 5 PM, the doorbell rang. I opened it to find Jade standing there, and my brain immediately short-circuited.She wore a sleek black mini dress with a thigh-high slit that revealed dangerous amounts of leg. The neckline plunged just enough to make my mouth go dry. Heels that made her already inti

I stood on the sidewalk for approximately forty-five seconds before my phone buzzed.Clara: You alive?Me: Technically.Clara: Drop by my place. Jade's eating all the leftovers.Jade: They were mine.Clara: They were communal.I stared at the group chat, my brain still running on Leona's perfume and whatever the hell had just happened in that car."Mira?""Yeah?""Did Leona just proposition me?""Observationally, yes. Romantically, probably. Professionally, definitely.""So all three at once?""Welcome to the Influence Path."I went upstairs.Clara's apartment was exactly the chaos I remembered with monitors glowing and empty energy drinks. Jade on the couch in sweats, hair down, looking like she'd ditched the black dress approximately thirty seconds after I'd left.They both looked at me when I walked in."How'd it go?" Jade asked, mouth full of what looked like leftover stir-fry."The panel was good. I called out Marcus. He didn't kill me on stage. Small wins.""And Leona?" Clara as

Clara’s apartment looked like a war room after the battle.Three monitors still glowing. Energy drink cans forming a small army on the desk. Papers everywhere, from printed screenshots and timestamps to connection maps drawn in red marker.Her keyboard had that a dull, mechanical sound, like it was too tired to click properly.And Clara? Clara looked like death had offered her a deal and she’d counter-offered.“Have you slept?” I asked from the doorway.She didn’t look up. “Sleep is for people who aren’t building a case file.”“That’s a no.”“That’s a no.”I stepped inside. Clara was still in yesterday’s “sudo make me a sandwich” hoodie, hair escaping from a bun that had given up hours ago.On the main screen: a timeline. Every Derek interaction documented. Forum posts. Camera footage. VPN logs. The Marcus connection map in the corner.It was impressive. It was also not going to get Derek arrested right now, and she couldn’t keep doing this.“Clara.”“Mm.”“Clara, look at me.”She fin

I woke up with someone warm pressed against me.That alone was enough to make me wonder if I'd died and the afterlife had finally gotten its act together.Then my brain caught up. Derek's arrested. Clara's still here.I was careful not to move. She was still asleep, cheek against my chest, one hand loose near my collarbone.The light coming through the blinds was that soft, early stuff. The kind of morning where nothing has gone wrong yet and you're almost afraid to breathe in case you remind the universe it's supposed to be a disaster.I stared at the ceiling.Okay, Evan. Do not screw this up.The ceiling offered no reassurance.***She woke up slowly.Not the snapping-awake, where-am-I thing. She stretched first, a long, catlike move that pushed her heel into my calf and her shoulder into my ribs, and then she just... lay there for a second.Like she was taking stock of the morning and finding it acceptable.It was the same Clara, with the same sharp cheekbones, the same way her hai