The bar's bustle died in an instant, replaced by a tense silence, the kind that only occurs when someone from outside this underworld enters. The icy wind of the storm whipped a swirl of snow up the stairs, and from behind the white mist, he appeared.
Even in a dive as filthy as this, the man stood out like a beacon in the night. He was tall, with hard, sculpted features, and wore a long black wool coat that dripped rainwater and melted snow onto the wooden floor.
He wasn't wearing a tie, and the top buttons of his white shirt were undone, giving him a dangerously disheveled appearance. But what truly drew attention was his face.
His jaw was so clenched that the muscles in his neck stood out like ropes, and his eyes, a stormy, cold gray, surveyed his surroundings with utter contempt, as
