Chapter 2 Connected

The driver asks, "Home, miss?"

She nods without meeting his eyes. The lights smear by-storefronts, rain-streaked glass, the sea glittering at the edge of everything.

Across the city, Adrian's convoy moves in the opposite direction. Inside the lead vehicle, he sits back, jacket unbuttoned, one hand resting against the seat, the other scrolling through messages on a phone. Numbers, deals, names. All noise until one thought interrupts: the woman in red.

He closes the screen. Outside, Valoria glows-too perfect from afar, like a gem hiding cracks.

Marcus sits across from him. "You want a full report by morning?"

"Earlier than that."

"She's listed on the guest roster under 'Lane, Isabella.' Corporate events consultant. No prior record, no visible affiliations."

"No visible," Adrian repeats. "Means something's invisible."

Marcus studies him. "She got under your skin fast."

Adrian's gaze stays on the window. "No. Am just curious. Curiosity isn't weakness."

"Sometimes it's step one."

Adrian's mouth tilts, not a smile. "Then I'll stop at step one."

The car turns toward the private drive leading to Steele Mansion. Security lights sweep over iron gates as they open soundlessly. The estate stretches over the cliffs-glass, steel, and precision geometry, the kind of place that looks both beautiful and capable of killing.

Inside the Steele mansion, the air is still. The staff have vanished into invisible corridors. Adrian heads for his home office, motion sensors blooming light across the floor. The space is minimalist: chrome desk, dark wood, a single painting that looks like smoke frozen mid-rise.

He pours whiskey, the color of old secrets, and stands before the window. Valoria lies below like circuitry-roads glowing, harbor flickering.

He remembers the tilt of her chin, the defiance at the edges of politeness.

She didn't flinch. Everyone flinches.

The memory makes him uneasy, and unease is unacceptable. He drains the glass, sets it down without a sound.

Marcus's voice comes through an intercom. "Background files coming through now."

"Leave them."

"Understood."

The light clicks off as Adrian leaves the room. The untouched second glass, the reflection of city lights trembling in it.

*****

Isabella's apartment sits five floors above a flower shop that never closes. The space is small, painted in warm tones that don't match her current chill. She locks the door, removes the earpiece, and sets it beside an open folder on the counter.

A photograph stares back: Adrian Steele, younger, unsmiling.

Below the photo, a thin dossier: Organized crime involvement. Money laundering. Suspected homicide- Luca Lane.

Her brother's name. The reason she's here.

She presses a finger against the picture until the edge bites her skin.

This is for him.

Still, her thoughts loop back-his voice, quiet but magnetic. The way the room had bent toward him. The strange safety in danger.

She laughs once, quietly, at herself. "You're already losing it girl."

Outside, sirens slide through the night, more lullaby than alarm.

She closes the file, sets an alarm for dawn, and leaves the light on when she lies down. Sleep comes in fragments-his face in the crowd, her own reflection in his glass-dark eyes, the whisper of a touch that shouldn't mean anything and already does.

*****

At the same hour, Adrian walks through the mansion's garden, phone in his pocket, jacket over one shoulder. The path glows faintly under low lights; the sea beyond is black silk.

He pauses near the railing that overlooks the cliffs. Wind moves through the hedges, carrying the salt of the ocean. He breathes in once, long.

The mind that never stills replays the evening like security footage: entrance, observation, contact. He slows the frames where she smiles. Something about that smile feels off-not false, not true-just too aware.

He speaks to no one. "What are you Ms Lane? And why do I want to know more about you?

The sea answers with its usual indifference.

*****

In the control room beneath the house, Marcus studies surveillance footage from the gala. He watches Isabella's movements frame by frame: the way she scans the room before Adrian arrives, how her eyes catch his almost as if cued.

He makes a note: She expects contact.

He doesn't delete the file.

*****

Morning edges into Valoria. Fog climbs from the water, wrapping the city in silver.

Isabella wakes before her alarm. Coffee brews; the radio murmurs news about markets, politics, the usual noise. She dresses in grey slacks and a blouse meant to be invisible.

At her desk, she writes a single line in a small notebook:

Phase one complete. Subject engaged.

She pauses, looks at the notebook, then adds beneath it:

Complication-none admitted.

Her handwriting shakes once before she closes the cover.

*****

Adrian stands before the mirror, tie undone, and eyes cold. The paper Marcus left on his desk waits beside a file labeled Isabella Lane. He doesn't open it.

Instead, he buttons his cuffs, each motion precise. His reflection stares back-calm, deliberate, unreadable.

He says quietly, "Let's see who you really are." Outside, the city hums to life.