The kiss ended, leaving a vacuum of sound in the massive, empty forty-second floor.
Sophie’s chest rose and fell in jagged, uneven rhythms against his coat. Her hands remained fisted in his lapels, her knuckles pale, anchoring herself to him. Her eyes were dark, dilated, searching his face for whatever ca next.
Ryan let his hands slide from her waist. He took a deliberate half-step backward. The physical separation hit the air between them like a bucket of ice water.
Sophie blinked, her hands dropping to her sides. She smoothed the front of her blazer, a jerky, automatic motion to recover her professional footing.
"I need you to take point on the logistics," Ryan said, his voice entirely stripped of the gravelly heat from seconds prior. He kept his tone flat, instructional. "I have fires to put out that don’t involve the software. The move-in, the furniture assembly, the keycard distributions – it all falls on you."
She swallowed, processing the sudden shift in his gravity. "You want to handle the entire office migration?"
"Yes," Ryan said. He turned and started walking toward the elevator bank. The charcoal carpet swallowed the sound of his boots. "Get the team out of my apartnt by Friday. Hire whoever you need. Movers, decorators, caterers. Use the corporate card. I don’t care what it costs, just make it seamless."
Sophie hurried to catch up, her heels clicking a sharp tempo. "You’re stepping back from the day-to-day?"
"I’m stepping up," Ryan corrected, hitting the call button for the elevator. The steel doors slid open imdiately. "I’ll be busy. Really busy. You run the floor until I tell you otherwise."
She stepped into the carriage beside him, her brow furrowed. "Ryan, what exactly are you doing?"
He looked straight ahead at the tal doors as they slid shut. "Acquiring leverage."
Ten minutes later, Ryan stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and watched Sophie hail her own cab back downtown. Once her car disappeared into the crawling yellow stream of traffic, Ryan raised his hand.
A battered Ford Escape cab pulled to the curb. Ryan opened the back door and slid onto the cracked vinyl seat.
It slled intensely of artificial pine and stale cigarette smoke.
"Downtown. Tribeca," Ryan told the driver.
The cab lurched forward, throwing Ryan back against the seat. He rested his elbow on the window ledge, watching the grey concrete of Midtown blur past.
His mind shifted gears, dropping the corporate facade and locking onto the cold, hard reality of the ticking clock.
Three months.
He ran the variables of the Italian man with the cigar. The syndicate wanted the System.
They had given him an ultimatum: hand it over willingly, or they burn his life to the ground.
He played with the angles. Could he buy them off?
He had millions now, and by next week, he could generate more. He could wire them a staggering amount of cash.
He shook his head, rejecting the thought instantly.
Whoever sent the mafia must have paid a stupendous amount.
The syndicate themselves wouldn’t take payoffs when they believed they could own the printing press. If he offered anyone cash, it only confird the true value of what he held.
It would make them greedier. It would make them impatient.
Money wouldn’t solve the blackmail tape. The only thing that solved a threat of force was superior force.
He needed that steel briefcase.
The man had been arrogant.
"I alone know the code to this case, and inside it now is the only copy..."
Ryan rubbed his jaw. To get the drive, he had to take the briefcase. To take the briefcase, he needed a team capable of kicking down a heavily guarded door, neutralizing a room full of professional muscle holding matte-black submachine guns, and breaking a chanical combination lock on site.
He couldn’t hire a private security firm.
Legitimate security companies didn’t execute black-ops raids on mafia strongholds.
He needed rcenaries. Ghosts. People who traded in untraceable violence and asked zero questions.
His phone vibrated against his thigh, a harsh, sustained buzz.
Ryan pulled it out. It wasn’t the System. It was a text from Mike.
Mike: Boss. Check this out.
A link followed. Ryan tapped it. The browser opened, loading a pop-culture gossip aggregator.
The headline sat in bold, aggressive font: ZARA’S MYSTERY MAN SPOTTED WITH NEW BLONDE IN MIDTOWN.
Below the text was a high-resolution photograph. It was taken from across the street, capturing Ryan and Sophie walking through the revolving glass doors of the high-rise they had just left.
The angle was damning. Ryan was holding the door, his body angled toward Sophie. Sophie was looking up at him, her face flushed.
Ryan let out a slow, grating sigh. He dragged his thumb across the screen, reading the captions.
Trouble in paradise? Zara Osei’s new possible boyfriend caught slipping into a midtown high-rise with a mystery woman.
The paparazzi hadn’t stopped following him after the restaurant it seed.
They were hunting for a crack in the narrative, and he had just handed them a sledgehamr.
He locked the phone and shoved it back into his pocket. The headache forming behind his eyes throbbed with a dull, rhythmic ache.
He didn’t have ti to manage a PR crisis. The syndicate had the video of Diana. Now the paparazzi had a photo of Sophie. The blast radius of his life was expanding, dragging the won he cared about into the crossfire.
He needed a distraction. Sothing loud, expensive, and public to reset the board.
He pulled the phone back out and opened his concierge app.
Friday night. The Detroit Pistons versus the Knicks.
He didn’t look for courtside seats. He looked for the suites.
He found an available luxury box. The price tag sat at an exorbitant $45,000 for the night, complete with private catering, a dedicated entrance, and absolute privacy behind tinted glass.
It was perfect.
He hit purchase, entering his personal routing number.
The confirmation screen loaded.
A second later, the dark interface of the Interest Protocol dropped down.
> EXPENDITURE RECOGNIZED: SEDUCTION
> Base Amount: $45,000
> Bold Action Multiplier Applied: 2.5x
> Return Tir Initiated
He locked the screen. The $112,500 return would hit his account by tomorrow afternoon.
The taxi hit a pothole, jarring his spine. Ryan stared out the window at the passing storefronts. He had the money. He had the venue.
Now, he just needed to hire the monsters.
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