Charles POV

“When a man like me smells fear, he doesn’t run. He builds walls out of it.”

The penthouse was quiet except for the hum of the air system and the slow tick of a gold-plated clock.

I had built this safe house years ago fortified glass, encrypted locks, soundproof rooms.

A man doesn’t get to my age in power without preparing to disappear.

My reflection in the window looked older than I remembered.

The bruising shadows beneath my eyes were new. So was the tremor in my hand ...