𝐌𝐀𝐅𝐈𝐀'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐕𝐄 ||𝐉𝐉𝐊 𝐅𝐅🔞||

C H A P T E R : 19

I sit in the dark with my jacket still on, even though the room is warm.

Old habit. You don’t take things off until you’re sure you’re staying. The city outside the window moves the way it always does… loud, careless, unaware. Inside, everything is quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that means something is already wrong and just hasn’t announced itself yet...

There’s a file on the table in front of me.

Thin. Too thin...

That alone is a problem.

I tap my fingers against the edge once, then stop. Impatience gets people killed. I learned that early. Still, my eyes don’t leave the folder. Business doesn’t disappear. Accounts don’t go silent without a reason. Routes don’t shift unless someone powerful decides they should.

And lately… too many things are shifting.

I open the file...

Numbers. Names. Dates. Movements that almost make sense if I don’t look too closely. Almost. Someone cleaned this up. Not sloppily. Not perfectly either. Just enough to pass if no one important bothered to dig.

I close it again.

So someone thought I wouldn’t.

Interesting...

I lean back, gaze drifting to the ceiling as I think. Not about one deal or one territory. About patterns. Because that’s where the truth always hides. A delay here. A reroute there. Protection appearing where it wasn’t requested. Silence where noise should be.

It all points inward.

Toward my world.

That doesn’t happen by accident.

I reach for my phone but don’t unlock it. There are names I could call. Men who would give me answers within minutes. But answers given too fast are usually rehearsed. I don’t want rehearsed.

I want real.

So I wait.

Waiting is something I’m good at. Waiting and watching while people convince themselves they’re safe. While they make decisions they think won’t reach me.

They always do.

My jaw tightens slightly as a different thought creeps in, unwelcome and uninvited. Not about money. Not about power. About something… smaller. Quieter. Something that doesn’t belong in rooms like this.

I don’t like that.

I push it away immediately.

Sentiment has no place in business. It clouds judgment. Weakens timing. Still, the unease lingers, sitting heavy in my chest like unfinished work.

Someone moved something valuable.

Not expensive.

Valuable.

There’s a difference.

I stand and walk toward the window, hands slipping into my pockets as I look down at the city. From up here, people look like dots. Replaceable. That’s the truth most of them don’t want to accept.

But there are exceptions.

Rare ones.

And someone, somewhere, is acting like they found one.