Allari's POV
I hadn't planned on Cloud 9 tonight. Business had brought me there — a quiet meeting with one of the mid-tier suppliers we'd been circling for weeks, the kind of deal best made over expensive whiskey in a private booth where nobody important was watching.
Then I saw her.
Across the club, half-hidden under a hoodie that did nothing to disguise the way she moved through a crowd, and I nearly missed the meeting entirely trying to convince myself it wasn't her. It was.
"Give me a minute," I told the supplier, already standing.
"We were about to discuss terms—"
"We'll finish tomorrow." I didn't wait for his response.
I kept my distance at first, close enough to watch, far enough that she wouldn't notice — old habit, useful now for reasons that had nothing to do with the miss
