Quiet Reign

Nhazul Kasaki had always been the type to stand out in a crowd, though not for reasons anyone would call admirable. At twenty-two, he was nearing the end of his med school tenure at Lanyard University, a place he had excelled academically but found suffocatingly dull. His grades were pristine, his professors praised his potential, and the wild dorm parties offered plenty of distractions, but none of it filled the gnawing void inside him.

Imaz Gray, on the other hand, had never thought of herself as a criminal. At twenty-two, she was a rising star at Harper College, a computer science major with a knack for coding and a smile that could light up a room. Where Nhazul was sharp and biting, Imaz was warm and inviting. Making friends had always come easy to her; she was the type of person who remembered your birthday, asked how your day was, and genuinely cared about the answer.

The robbery should have been simple. Nhazul was supposed to be nothing more than a bystander, picking up a late-night snack. Imaz was supposed to be behind the scenes, out of sight and out of danger. But things rarely go as planned in Harper City.