Julian’s POV
The check was paid before she could even reach for her purse. I didn't do it out of a sense of archaic chivalry; I did it because, in my world, the one who pays controls the pace. Information is currency, but timing is power, and I wasn't ready for this night to end. Not yet. I had spent my life moving from one objective to the next, but for the first time in years, the "machine" was idling.
As we stepped out of the restaurant and into the cool, salt-heavy air of the French Riviera, the town of Antibes was glowing like a string of amber pearls against the velvet throat of the Mediterranean. The tourists were thinning out, leaving the cobblestone streets to the ghosts of old poets and the quiet hum of high-end security details.
"I heard that a boat sailing at night is much n
