“Nice,” Cole said, tilting his head all the way back to follow the glass stretching up into the sky. “Do you think the people who clean those windows are supermen?”
I stared down at Cole in disbelief and the specific exhaustion that came from knowing him too well. Of all the things to land, were window cleaners? I didn’t even have the energy to answer. I tightened my grip on his hand and guided him toward the entrance.
People moved in and out of the building with efficiency. They had confidence that came from belonging to a world that ran on purpose and never had to raise its voice.
Then there was me, wearing jeans, a t-shirt advertising Coca-Cola loudly enough to count as a sponsorship deal. My backpack hung off one shoulder. Not the version carrying books or the random debris of a normal day. This one carried every dollar I had left. I adjusted the strap and kept walking.
The doors slid open as we reached them, and the cool air inside wrapped around us. I walked straight to the reception desk. The woman behind it looked exactly like someone who had earned her position in a building like this. Her hair was in a high bun, with no strand out of place, and her makeup was applied with intention.
“Hi, good morning. How can I help you today?” She had a practiced smile that would work on everyone.
“I’m here to see—” I paused for half a second, his name sitting just at the edge of my tongue. “Dmitri. Dmitri Konstantinov. Or something close to that.”
Her brows lifted enough to ripple the smooth surface of her expression. “Do you have an appointment?”
“I believe so.” I held her gaze. “Call him and tell him Inna is here. He’s expecting me.”
Her eyes moved over me, assessing my body as if trying to find a category that fit. Her fingers moved across the keyboard.
“I’m sorry, but he is not expect—”
The desk phone rang. She stopped mid-sentence and picked it up, her eyes sliding back to me.
“This is Ann.” A pause. “Oh, yes.” Her shoulders pulled back. “I’m sorry, sir. Of course.”
She set the phone down. The polished calm she had been wearing since we walked in developed a crack right through the middle.
“I’m sorry, madam,” she said politely. “I didn’t know you were the boss’s wife.”
The words reached me, and for a moment, my brain refused to process them.
Was he watching us? I lifted my eyes and found a small black dome fixed in the corner of the ceiling—a camera. Of course, he was watching.
“Where is he?” I asked.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she snapped her fingers toward a guard stationed a few steps away. He crossed to us immediately.
“He will take you,” she said, then turned to him. “Use the private elevator. Twenty-seventh floor.”
“Follow me.”
My grip tightened on Cole as we fell in behind the guard. The elevator ride passed in silence. When the doors opened, the twenty-seventh floor greeted us with stillness. No footsteps. No voices. Just space. The floors shone without a single mark. The walls stood bare, but quietly expensive. And the windows stretched wide across one side, framing the city below. It looked like a painting someone had hung there to remind you how far up you were. Everything felt like the movement itself required prior approval.
I already knew the man was dangerous. The lawyer alone was enough to confirm that. But standing here on this floor, I settled into the understanding that this was not a man you crossed and walked away from.
I swallowed and made a quiet decision. I needed distance from him.
A man in a suit came toward us from the far end of the floor. I recognized him as he moved closer. It was the suit guy from the beach restaurant last night—the messenger who seemed to love his job a lot.
“I’ll take it from here,” he said, dismissing the guard without so much as looking at him. “Follow me.”
We walked down the hallway, and the suit guy stopped in front of a door and knocked once. When someone answered from inside, the guy turned to me.
“Cole will wait out here.”
I didn’t like that arrangement, but I had little choice. I gave Cole an assuring nod as the suit guy opened the door for me.
The office opened before me, and for a second, I felt as if I had stepped into a place that didn’t belong in the real world. The room stretched wide, every piece of furniture sitting exactly where it fit. Nothing was out of place. The glass wall drew my attention across the room; the city spread out until it touched the ocean. I could watch that all day and not get tired.