Chapter 18 · Smile for the Cameras

Kade walked into Oryx Dominion with Silas Grave smiling three feet ahead and Mara's hand locked around his arm like a cuff.

The lobby smelled like filtered air and money. White marble, chrome rails, ceiling so high the lights looked like stars. Silas hadn't stopped talking since the doors shut behind them. Something about partnership. Reintegration. The family welcoming back a lost son.

Kade's jaw ached from smiling.

"Security's a formality," Silas said, turning back with that easy corporate grin. He held up two champagne flutes, condensation already beading on the glass. "But the cameras do love a reunion story. So let's give them one."

Mara took a glass. Her fingers didn't shake. Kade watched her lift it, watched her smile at Silas like she wasn't thinking about the six ways to crack his spine with a champagne flute and a hard surface.

"To homecomings," Silas said.

Kade clinked his glass against Silas's and drank. The bubbles tasted like rust.

They moved deeper into the tower. Silas walked like a tour guide. Gestured at the glass-walled conference rooms, the vertical gardens, the employees in tailored jackets who stepped aside and didn't make eye contact. Kade counted exits. Counted cameras.