Chapter 1

The heavy, velvet-lined door clicked shut behind me, sealing me off from the muffled thump of bass that vibrated through the floorboards of the lounge below. I had chosen this place specifically because it was tucked away in the back of the building, a private suite that smelled faintly of stale beer, expensive perfume, and the metallic tang of old microphones. It was a sanctuary of neon and shadow, a place where the world outside ceased to exist. I stepped inside, the air conditioning hitting my sweat-slicked skin like a cool hand. The room was dim, bathed in a perpetual twilight of pulsing disco lights that swept across the ceiling in slow, hypnotic arcs of electric blue and magenta. They cast long, distorted shadows against the plush, crimson velvet booths that lined the walls. The air was thick, humid with the residual breath of a hundred previous patrons, carrying a scent that was distinctly, uniquely *him*. It wasn’t just his cologne—sandalwood and tobacco, sharp and grounding—but the underlying musk of his presence, the scent of a man who owned a room simply by standing in it. I looked around, my heart doing a traitorous little flutter against my ribs. The