Noel Stark walked back to her dorm alone.
The campus stretched out around her in the pre-dawn gray, empty paths winding between buildings that wouldn't see students for another hour. Her footsteps echoed against the concrete. Each step carried her further from the gym and closer to questions she didn't have answers for.
What the hell was she doing?
She'd come to Coastline with a plan. A perfect plan. Five years in the making. Every variable accounted for. Every contingency mapped. Graduate top of her class. Secure placement at a premier agency. Establish dominance over Rome D'Angelo in every measurable category. Watch him fade into irrelevance while she rose to heights he could never reach.
Simple. Clean. Satisfying.
Then the idiot had to go and become interesting.
