CHAPTER 23
SALVATORE POV
The meeting should have been routine. Simple. Predictable. Instead, it became the longest two hours of my life.
I sat at the head of the conference table while men who controlled ports, politicians, and entire cities argued over numbers and territory lines drawn on maps. Normally, I enjoyed meetings like this. Power was easiest to understand when it was spread across a table in front of you. Power followed rules. People followed patterns. Everything could be controlled with the right leverage.
Today felt completely different. I felt wrong in ways I couldn't explain.
Because Lena was in the room. She wasn't speaking. Wasn't participating in any of the discussions happening around her. She was just sitting near the far wall with a file open on her lap. Listenin
