LOCATION: NEW EDEN – HIGH SOCIETY CAFE

TIME: 10:22 a.m.

The city didn’t sleep. It watched.

And this morning, it watched Solene not in hiding, not in armor, not in shadow.

In silk.

Hair slicked back. Black lipstick. No weapons visible.

She sat at a public café owned by Romano’s third cousin, in the heart of territory that should’ve killed her on sight.

Lucien watched from across the street, sniper scope idle.

“I still don’t understand the plan,” Rios said in his ...