Damien’s POV
The day had been long before it even began. Meetings stacked one after another, calls that led nowhere, messages from contacts that suddenly stopped replying, and the constant hum of a business trying to keep its head above water while every rumor in the city tried to pull it under. By late afternoon, my head was pounding and my patience had thinned to nothing. Ethan and Christiano were in the office with me, both looking like men who hadn’t slept properly in days. The air felt heavy with everything we weren’t saying.
Ethan was pacing. He had been doing that since the morning. His voice carried that low urgency that always came when he was hiding nerves. He kept talking about the docks, the men, the shipments that never made it through, and the names that were starting to le
