Ares's POV
The night had gone quiet… too quiet.
The city still hummed beyond the glass walls of my penthouse, but inside, it felt like the world had stopped breathing. The phone call from the unknown number replayed in my head again and again like a broken record.
"Someone inside KnightCorp wants to make sure the merger stops halfway…"
The words clung to me like smoke I could not wash off.
I set my phone down on the counter and leaned against it, pressing my palms into the cold marble until it bit into my skin. I needed to think, but my thoughts kept slipping back to the one person I didn't want them to… Jasmine.
The way she had looked at me before leaving the boardroom… defiant, wounded, but steady. I hated how much it got to me. How much she still got to me.
I poured myself a drink, even though I was not sure what I was trying to drown.
The whiskey burned down my throat, sharp and honest. Unlike most people I dealt with.
