The underground garage was nearly empty at this hour. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting everything in a pale, tired glow. Zachary's car sat in its reserved spot.The leather seats were cool. The engine purred to life. Neither of them spoke as he pulled out of the garage and onto the empty streets.The city at 1 AM was a different world. Dark storefronts. Empty sidewalks. Traffic lights cycling through their patterns for no one. The only sounds were the soft hum of the engine and the occasional distant wail of a siren.Zachary drove carefully. Slower than usual. Taking turns gently.Beside him, Seraphina had her head against the window. Her eyes were half-closed. Her tablet and bag were tucked at her feet. She looked smaller than usual. Less like the CEO who commanded boardrooms, more like a woman who'd been running on fumes for too long.He glanced at her.Her breathing had slowed. Her lips were slightly parted. The tension in her shoulders had softened.She's not—A soft so

Seraphina shook her head slightly at this, hair flying."You were being kind sir. It's nothing." But Zachary disagreed. "I was being an idiot."She looked up at that, amusement making her lips twist."Perhaps both," she said.Zachary laughed, a short, breathless sound, and rubbed the back of his neck. The tension in the room had shifted. Less electric now. More awkward. But not... bad. It wasn't terrible."We should probably get off the floor," he said."That would be advisable."They stood up together, both of them a little unsteady, both of them careful not to touch. Zachary busied himself with straightening his shirt. Seraphina gathered her hair, twisting it back into a loose knot at the nape of her neck.The silence stretched between them, thick and strange."You should sleep here," Zachary said finally. "Tonight. It's late. You're exhausted. There are guest rooms upstairs."Seraphina's hands paused in her hair. "Young Lord, that's not—""I'm not taking no for an answer." He c

Seraphina's eyes narrowed slightly. "Levi is loyal to me. He's been loyal for a long time. If I tell him to cooperate, he'll cooperate."Zachary wanted to argue. Wanted to point out that Henderson's loyalty to her was exactly the problem.That the man was in love with her and saw Zachary as a rival, and no amount of professional courtesy would change that.But he couldn't say that.Because saying that would mean admitting that he'd noticed. That he'd been watching Henderson watch her. That it bothered him more than he wanted to admit.'And then she'd ask why it bothers you,' a voice whispered in his head. 'And what would you say? That you're jealous? That you don't like the way Henderson looks at her? That you—'He cut the thought off."Fine," he said, the word clipped. "He stays. For now."Seraphina studied him for a moment, her pale eyes searching his face. "You're not happy about this.""I don't have to be happy. I just have to tolerate it.""That's not an answer.""It's the only o

The elevator ride down to the fourth floor felt longer than usual.Zachary stood in the corner, arms crossed, watching the numbers tick downward on the small display above the doors. Beside him, Seraphina was scrolling through her tablet, her expression focused, her lips pressed into a thin line.Neither of them spoke.The silence wasn't uncomfortable, quite the opposite really.In no time, the elevator doors slid open with a soft chime."Fourth floor," Seraphina announced, stepping out into the corridor. "Mira's office is at the end of the hall."Zachary followed, his footsteps echoing on the polished floor. The fourth floor was quieter than the executive levels, fewer people, smaller offices, the kind of space where real work got done without fanfare or ego.'Mira Chen,' he thought. 'The woman who can find patterns in numbers that shouldn't exist.'He was curious to meet her. Genuinely curious. Someone that sharp, that unnoticed, that content to stay in the shadows while others too

He clearly hit a nerve.Henderson turned his head, finally looking at Zachary directly. His eyes were dark, unreadable, and there was something in them that might have been anger or might have been exhaustion or might have been a complicated mixture of both."Let's get one thing straight," Henderson said, his voice low. "I'm not here because I want to be. I'm not here because I like you or trust you or think you're capable of running anything more complicated than a coffee maker. I'm here because my boss asked me to be, and I owe her more than I owe my own pride."Zachary kept his eyes on the road. "Noted.""So we can do this one of two ways. We can spend the entire drive pretending we don't want to strangle each other, which will be exhausting for both of us. Or we can agree that we have a job to do, do it, and go back to ignoring each other's existence until the next time CEO Knowles forces us into the same room."Zachary considered this. It was, he had to admit, a reasonable offer