The door opened at 2:14 AM and Naomi's heart dropped before Robert even crossed the threshold. Because it was just him. She'd been sitting on the sofa for the past hour telling herself they were fine, Lucas was fine, Robert would walk back through that door with Lucas right behind him and some explanation that would make all of this feel less like the ground disappearing under her feet. But Robert walked in alone, and the look on his face — not the usual arrogance, not the control he wore like a second skin — just this raw, unsettled exhaustion, like a man who'd seen something he couldn't categorize — told her everything before he said a word. "Where is he?" Her voice came out smaller than she intended. Robert closed the door behind him. He stood in the entrance for a moment, looking at their father in the armchair, their mother rigid by the window, then back at Naomi. Whatever he was about to say, he was still deciding how to say it. "Just tell us," William said quietly. So Robe

She hadn't slept.Not even close. She'd lain in the dark listening to the house settle around her, listening to her mother cry quietly in the bedroom down the hall, listening to her own thoughts run in circles until the sky outside her window went from black to the particular grey that meant morning was coming whether she was ready for it or not.*Trust me,* Lucas had written.She was trying. She just didn't know how to trust someone from a distance when every instinct she had was screaming at her to move.The doorbell rang at 6:47 AM.Naomi was downstairs and at the door before it rang a second time, some part of her hoping irrationally that it would be Lucas, that he'd found a way out already, that this would be over. It wasn't Lucas.It was a kid. Twenty-two maybe, slight, wearing a hoodie two sizes too big and carrying a laptop bag over one shoulder like it was the most important thing he owned. Which, she would later understand, it probably was. He looked at her with wide eyes th

Let me tell you something about wearing a tuxedo when your hands are shaking.Nobody sees it. That's the thing. You button the jacket, you straighten the tie, you look in whatever mirror is available and the person looking back at you appears completely composed. Calm. Like a man attending a charity event because he cares about charity. The shaking is internal. Always internal. Lucas had learned that at nineteen and never forgotten it.He buttoned the jacket and looked at himself in the cracked mirror on the safehouse wall.Zero, he thought. Not Lucas. Not tonight.The car dropped them two blocks from the Meridian Grand at 7:45 PM. Victor walked ahead, unhurried, already in character the way only someone who'd been lying their whole life could be — completely, seamlessly, like the performance was the reality and the reality was just something he did in private. Phantom was already inside. Wraith at the south entrance. Cipher with the car three blocks east.Lucas walked beside Victor a

Lucas moved the way water moves — inevitable, contained, faster than Victor's brain could send the signal to his finger.He was inside Victor's reach before the gun had finished tracking toward him. His hand found Victor's wrist and twisted, not gently, the angle that made fingers open involuntarily whether they wanted to or not. The gun hit the carpet with a sound that was somehow both soft and final.Then Lucas's other hand was at Victor's throat. Not choking. Just there. A pressure point. A promise."Don't." His voice came out quieter than it should have, which made it worse somehow. "Don't make me hurt you."Victor looked at him with eyes that were bright and sharp and almost — almost — impressed.Behind them the room had gone rigid. Phantom's hand was halfway to something in her jacket. Wraith had moved toward the door without seeming to move at all. Robert's security was frozen mid-reach for weapons they hadn't fully drawn. Morrison had backed himself against the far wall, breat

Agent Chen stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and an expression that meant the conversation they were about to have wasn't optional."Victor's asking for you."Lucas's hands went still on the hospital bed railing. The IV tugged at his arm. His ribs, taped and tender, reminded him with every shallow breath that three days ago he'd been on the floor of Morrison's office with Victor's boot in his side."No.""It wasn't a request." Chen stepped inside and closed the door behind her. "He won't talk to anyone else. Won't cooperate. Won't tell us where Cipher is or what his network looks like. Just keeps saying he'll only speak to Zero."Lucas stared at the window. The city outside kept moving like none of this had happened. "Then he doesn't talk.""Lucas." Chen's voice shifted slightly, something almost gentle underneath the federal agent exterior. "I need you to understand what we're dealing with. Victor built an organization. Three layers deep. Phantom's in custody but she's not t