The silence that followed the phone call was heavier than the storm clawing at the glass.
Elena set her phone down on the polished mahogany desk, her fingers lingering on the dark screen for a fraction of a second before she withdrew them. The device lay still, a quiet black rectangle in a sea of highlighted land maps, bank routing sheets, and legal notices. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse suite, the coastal city was a blurred canvas of charcoal grey and neon amber. The rain washed over the towering concrete monoliths of the financial district, turning the world below into a shifting, liquid maze.
She walked to the window, her bare feet silent on the thick Persian rug. In the dark reflection of the glass, her silver eyes burned with a steady, cold light, no longer t
