The penthouse elevator whispered shut behind him, its quiet chime swallowed by the vast, almost oppressive silence of Juliet Grey's private domain. Theo Cross stepped onto the polished marble, sleek portfolio clutched under one arm, a lopsided smirk ghosting his mouth. This wasn't just a living space; it was a fortress, a statement. Steel, glass, and stark minimalism—clinical, like someone had designed it to feel perfectly uninhabited.
Someone, specifically, like Juliet Grey.
She stood by the panoramic window, her back straight, shoulders squared against the cityscape. The early morning sun tried to make a halo of her silhouette, but everything about her screamed distance: the tightly coiled chignon, the immaculate cream suit, the way she didn't so much as flinch when he entered. He hadn't even made a sound.
"You're late," she said, her voice cutting through the stillness, cool and precise.
Theo checked his nonexistent watch, letting his gaze sweep over the room, absorbing every detail. "By whose clock? And for what, exactly? Your cameras went dark just as I was getting Michael to greenlight me."
Her head snapped toward him, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. It was gone in an instant, replaced by her usual glacial composure. "You were monitoring my private residence?"
"I was monitoring a security breach that started with your company and escalated to your doorstep," Theo corrected, his voice easy, a low counterpoint to her crisp tones. "My tracker on Michael pinged your perimeter moments before your penthouse feed dropped.
Coincidence, Ms. Grey? Or are you expecting midnight visitors?"
Her jaw tightened. "My security team assures me it was a system glitch. A temporary lapse."
"Right." He let that word hang, heavy with disbelief. "You've read my file. By now, you shouldn't be surprised I don't believe in glitches."
Juliet turned, finally.
And for a second, just one he forgot how to lie. She was sharper than her press photos, infinitely more dangerous. Not just beautiful. Unnerving. The kind of woman who built kingdoms and buried the bodies beneath them. Her eyes were the colour of uncut diamonds, cutting and cold. Her mouth, a thin, perfect line, seemed shaped by silence more than speech.
"You're Theo Cross," she said, her tone unreadable, dissecting him in return. "Ex-NSA, quietly folded out after a blackout op in Prague. Now freelancing for anyone willing to pay your exorbitant rates."
Theo's brows lifted, a flicker of genuine amusement. "Impressive background check."
"Not that impressive," she retorted. "You scrubbed most of it."
He tilted his head, a silent challenge. "That's why you brought me in, Ms. Grey? To see what I left behind? Or because your 'system glitch' just proved you need me more than you'd ever admit?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she gestured toward a solitary console in the corner, its screen dark. "You'll work from a quarantined node. Read-only access. No outbound connections. Every keystroke logged."
Theo's lips quirked. "Don't trust me, Ms. Grey?"
"I don't trust anyone." Her gaze didn't waver, a steel-cold conviction that both intrigued and frustrated him.
He smiled, a slow, predatory curving of his mouth, like he'd won something vital. He took a seat at the console—slowly, like a predator lowering into a crouch. "So let's talk about your leak. The one that came knocking on your door."
"There's nothing to talk about," Juliet stated, her voice clipped. "You patch the breach. Trace the source. Stay out of anything that doesn't concern you."
"I assume 'anything' includes you."
Her gaze didn't waver, holding his in a silent battle of wills. "Especially me."
Theo nodded, tapping a fingertip on the cold glass desk. "Just one question, then."
She waited, her stillness radiating impatience.
"Whoever did this… they knew what to hit. Not just the servers. The timing. The data clusters. It wasn't random. And it certainly wasn't about money."
"You're assuming a lot for someone who hasn't seen the logs." Juliet countered, a flicker of irritation in her diamond eyes.
"I'm assuming nothing," he said, pushing away from the desk. "Just... observing." As he moved, his sleeve intentionally knocked a pen off her desk. Reflex kicked in—he caught it midair without even looking, his fingers closing around the cold metal.
Their fingers brushed as he returned it to her. A static shock jumped between them,small but sharp, a sudden flare of unexpected heat in the sterile space. Juliet recoiled first, a nearly imperceptible jerk. Theo flexed his hand, a phantom tingle, like he'd been burned.
Neither acknowledged it, their eyes locking, the air suddenly thick with unspoken things.
"You're former military," she said, her voice cooler than before, as if trying to re-establish a barrier.
He didn't deny it. Just set the pen down gently, precisely. "You're observant."
"I have to be."
"Smart," he said, leaning just close enough to thread the moment tight, to make her feel the shift in the air between them. "But if I wanted to break your system, you'd never see me coming."
Juliet didn't flinch. Her expression remained perfectly blank. "That's what you're here to prove, Mr. Cross?" she asked, her voice laced with challenge.
"No," he said, already turning towards the door, the smirk returning. "That's what I'm here to prevent."
The elevator doors began to slide open, a soft whoosh of air. He stepped inside, letting his gaze sweep over her one last time before the doors shut behind him, leaving her alone in the quiet penthouse.
Juliet hadn't realized she hadn't breathed.