Chapter 23 · Closed

"Lock the door, Dimitri."

I didn't move. "You lock it. You're the one who's shaking."

Levi's hand was flat on the desk, fingers spread wide like he was holding the wood down instead of the other way around. Sweat at his hairline.

His collar was open two buttons more than he ever let it go, and under that, low, wrong, was the smell — sweet gone sour, sick-sweet, the kind that meant nothing to me twenty months ago, back when Sokolov first put me in this building to watch him. It hit different now. Hit like a fist to the throat.

"Get out." His voice cracked halfway through it. "That's an order from the man who owns your contract."

"Funny. Owning my contract used to mean something." I crossed the room anyway. "Right now it means you're standing in front of me lying with your whole body."

He turned the key himself. I heard it click. Closed.

"There." He swallowed. "Happy?"

"No." I stopped a foot from him, close enough to see his pupils blown wide, close enough that the desk edge was the only thing between us and it wasn't enough. "You canceled the council meeting.