Cassian hadn’t slept.
Not really.
He sat on the edge of a rusted bunk in the farthest room of the bunker, a half-lit cigarette burning down to the filter between his fingers. The bunker’s hum—old power lines, generator pulsing underground—was the only sound.
He hadn’t said a word since telling Anais his brother was still alive.
She hadn’t said anything either after that. Just gave him a look he couldn’t read. Not fear. Not anger. Something else.
Something that unsettled him more.
Disappointment.
Cassian dragged a hand over his jaw. The stubble felt like grit. His body ached, but it wasn’t pain he couldn’t handle. What dug deeper was knowing he’d brought the danger back into Anais’s life. Again. That her safety—her quiet—was gone because of him.
He’d never wanted to be the reason sh
