Saul nodded slowly. The memory was hazy, blurred at the edges by pain and panic and the fog of his collapsing consciousness. But he remembered. He remembered the phone in his hand, the blood on his fingers, the sound of her voice calling his name over and over again. He remembered the darkness closing in, and the strange, desperate need to say something before it swallowed him completely."Yeah," he said. His voice was quiet now. "I do."Kim's eyes met his. There was something in them that he couldn't read—something raw and vulnerable and terrifyingly open. She took a breath, and when she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper."Well, you said something to me before you passed out. Something I haven't been able to stop thinking about." She paused, her gaze searching his face. "Why did you say that?"Saul stared at her for a long moment. The question hung in the air between them, heavy and charged, like the stillness before a thunderstorm. He could feel his heart beating in his ch

Saul had been inactive in the workplace for two days.He had thought, initially, based on his recovery speed after the doctor ran a quick check-up on him when Kim and her brother were around, that he'd be up and active the next day. The specialist had given him a clean bill or as clean as could be expected for a man whose heart had stopped for thirty seconds and Saul had taken that as permission to jump back into his life with both feet. Saul had plans to make, he had files to review and he had a hidden office to investigate and financial records to trace and a company to run, even if he still felt like an imposter wearing someone else's skin.But it seemed that was not to be the case.The next morning, Saul woke to a fever that pinned him to the bed like a butterfly to a board.It came on suddenly. One moment he was sleeping peacefully, drifting through dreams he wouldn't remember, and the next he was burning alive, his skin slick with sweat, his sheets soaked through, his teeth c

Leo uncrossed his arms and walked toward the desk, dropping into the chair across from Saul with the casual grace of someone who had spent years perfecting the art of looking comfortable anywhere. He stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed them at the ankles."Alright," he said. "First things first. Your health. Doctor Aris came by again yesterday to check on you. You were pretty out of it, so you probably don't remember. He said the fever was a good sign—meant your body was purging the last of the drug. But he also said you need to take it easy for at least a week. " He wagged a finger at him, sternly, “So no stress. No overexertion and no running into burning buildings or fighting kidnappers in the backs of vans."Saul rolled his eyes."I'll try to contain myself.""See that you do." Leo's expression softened slightly. "Seriously, though. I know you want to be here. I know you want to work. But your body is still recovering. If you need to go home early, just say the wo

In a few steps they were standing in front of him now, Veronica and Kim, side by side, two women who couldn't have been more different and yet somehow radiated the exact same energy. Hostile energy. The kind that made the air in the room feel thick and charged, like the atmosphere before a thunderstorm.Saul could feel the tension crackling between them. Kim's posture was rigid, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes flicking between Saul and Veronica with an expression that was carefully, deliberately blank. Veronica's posture was looser, more relaxed, but her eyes were sharp, sharper than Saul had ever seen them, and her smile had edges that could cut glass.“Saul." Saul winced at the woman's tone, eyes dropping to the desk in shame.He cleared his throat. "Welcome," he said, and the word came out weak, wavering, nothing like the confident authority he was supposed to project.Before he could string another sentence together, Veronica interrupted him."Why haven't you called

"Leo, find out who the manager of the automobile main branch is," Saul said as he rummaged through his drawer to find his stylus.The siblings were sitting side by side in front of him, their postures a study in contrasts. Kim was upright and composed, her hands folded neatly in her lap, her blue dress still immaculate despite the long morning she'd already had. Leo meanwhile was sprawled in his chair like a lazy cat that had found a particularly sunny patch of carpet, one leg crossed over the other, his laptop balanced precariously on his knee. He looked like a man who'd never met a chair he couldn't turn into a couch.“Yes, I'm sending it to you now,” Leo replied, fingers already clattering over the keyboard. The sound was quick and sure, a rhythm that seemed to match his own heartbeat. Saul hardly registered it. He was too busy pulling open the shallow drawer under his desk, then the deeper one, then the one that always stuck halfway and made him jiggle it with a muttered curse.