Keigh's apartment was silent in a way that felt unnatural after chaos. Not the comfortable quiet of rest, but the kind that followed alarms, shouting, flashing lights, and bodies pressed together in panic.
Nara sat on the edge of a plush sofa, her hands curled into the fabric of her dress. Zuri paced the length of the living room, heels abandoned somewhere near the door, adrenaline still buzzing under her skin. Hellen who joined them after getting the news, stood near the window, arms crossed, eyes sharp as she scanned the city below like she expected it to rise up and bite them.
Keigh stood apart from all of them. Jacket off, and sleeves rolled. Calm carved into every line of his posture, too calm for a man who had just pulled two women out of a club evacuated by armed security and emergency responders.
"Okay," Zuri said finally, stopping mid-step and turning toward him. "No. We're not doing this quiet thing."
Keigh looked at her evenly.
"Doing what?"
"Pretending that what just happened was normal."
Nara swallowed.
She hadn't spoken since they arrived. Her ears were still ringing with echoes of screams, shattering glass, the sudden blackout, the way Keigh's hand had closed around hers without hesitation, grounding, unyielding.
Hellen nodded once. "I agree. The club doesn't shut down unless something serious happened."
Keigh exhaled slowly, like someone choosing his words with care.
"It was a scare," he said. "A targeted disruption. Nothing random."
Zuri stared at him. "You say that like you're talking about a delayed flight."
"It was meant to intimidate," Keigh continued calmly. "Not to harm."
Nara's head snapped up.
"Intimidate who?"
His gaze shifted to her softened, instantly.
"You."
The word landed heavy. Zuri's eyes flicked between them. Slowly. Carefully.
"…You," she repeated. "As in Nara, you?"
Keigh nodded. "Yes."
Hellen's jaw tightened. "By who?"
Keigh hesitated just a fraction.
"The Alarics," he said. "They've been keeping tabs on her since the anniversary gala."
Zuri let out a sharp laugh. "Keeping tabs?"
She gestured wildly. "Someone shut down a club I was in. Armed security ran people out. The media is already going insane."
He met her gaze steadily.
"And you're both safe."
"That's not the point."
"It is to me."
Silence stretched.
Then Zuri's eyes narrowed, something clicking into place.
"…Wait."
She turned slowly to Nara.
"since the gala?," she said carefully. " Are you the woman he declined the arrangement for, is this the mysterious art gallery guy. The one you wouldn't name."
Nara froze.
Zuri looked back at Keigh.
Then back at Nara.
Then back at Keigh again.
Her mouth fell open.
"No," she breathed.
"Oh my God. No."
Nara closed her eyes.
"It's him," Zuri whispered. "It's you."
Keigh didn't deny it.
Zuri ran a hand through her hair, half hysterical, half stunned.
"You let me talk about this man like he was some fictional heartbreak waiting to happen and it was Keigh Dynamite the entire time?"
Nara winced. "I didn't plan....."
"And you kissed," Zuri interrupted.
Nara's head snapped up.
Zuri pointed between them. "You kissed him."
Hellen's gaze sharpened instantly.
Nara's cheeks burned. "…Yes."
The room went still.
Hellen looked at Keigh then, really looked, assessing him not as a corporate partner, not as a powerful man, but as the person standing dangerously close to someone she loved like family.
"You didn't tell her everything," Hellen said quietly.
Keigh didn't blink. "No."
"And you're still not."
"No."
Zuri folded her arms. "Why?"
Keigh finally sat down across from Nara, not beside her, like he was intentionally keeping space.
"Because fear spreads faster than truth," he said. "And she's already being watched."
Nara's breath caught.
"Watched by who?"
Keigh met her eyes, voice gentler now. "By people who won't get near you again."
Zuri frowned. "You sound very sure."
"I am."
Hellen noticed it then, the cracks. The exhaustion behind his calm, the restraint in his hands, the way his eyes kept drifting toward the door, the windows, the exits.
"You were late," Hellen said slowly. "Tonight."
Keigh didn't deny it.
Zuri stiffened. "Late for what?"
"For stopping whoever did this," Hellen finished.
A beat. Keigh's jaw tightened just enough.
"They were already gone when I arrived," he admitted. "Every lead I followed ended in nothing."
Nara's stomach sank.
Zuri whispered, "Someone else stepped in."
Keigh didn't answer because he didn't know who and that, more than the Alarics, unsettled him.
---
Outside, across countries, a quiet report was filed. Names redacted and images archived.
A photograph of Nara paused on-screen just long enough for a woman's hand, elegant and trembling, to brush the edge of the frame.
The Queen said nothing, but her eyes lingered and the orbit around Nara tightened once more unseen, unstoppable.