The elevator doors slid open to the thirty-ninth floor, the soundless arrival broken only by the soft click of my shoes against marble. Here, the air didn't smell like city dust—it smelled like expensive lies and power polished to perfection.
In the glass-walled boardroom ahead, the meeting had already started. I wasn't supposed to be here. Technically, I didn't even exist in this building's organizational chart. But that's the advantage of being a ghost—no one knows when you're watching.
Inside, he was speaking. Damian Cole. The man the world believed was the CEO of Elysium Tower. Broad smile, rehearsed charm, the right tie to match the cameras waiting downstairs. He was my shield and my puppet all at once.
"…and with this merger, Elysium will expand into three new markets within the quarter," Damian said, his voice steady. He didn't believe a word of it—his hand was trembling near the coffee cup.
Around the table, the board members nodded, some with genuine interest, others with the fake enthusiasm of men guarding their own secrets.
From the shadow of the doorway, I scanned their faces. Contracts were signed in this room, but real deals—the ones that made or destroyed empires—were never spoken here. Still, today something felt… different.
A woman I'd never seen before was seated two places from Damian. Dark hair, sharp eyes, wearing a navy suit that fit her like a blade fits its sheath. She wasn't here to nod politely. Her gaze moved like a scalpel, slicing through Damian's words.
When the presentation ended, polite applause followed. I stepped back into the hallway just before the door opened and the room spilled out. Conversations blurred—corporate jargon mixed with shallow pleasantries.
The woman didn't follow the rest. She lingered in the boardroom, fingers tracing the edge of the table. Then she turned her head ever so slightly… toward me.
"You can come in," she said. Her voice was calm, almost bored.
I considered walking away. Ghosts aren't supposed to be summoned. But I stepped forward.
She didn't smile. "You're not on the list of executives."
"I'm not an executive," I replied.
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I own the list."
Her eyes narrowed just a fraction. That was my first warning—this one wasn't ordinary.
"You keep your face in the shadows," she said, "but you're not as invisible as you think."
I moved closer until the space between us was just enough to keep it from becoming dangerous. "If you know my face," I said quietly, "you've already made a mistake."
She tilted her head slightly, studying me the way an analyst studies a puzzle—knowing there's more than one way to solve it. "You have enemies," she said. "They're not the type who forget."
Before I could respond, she picked up her folder, brushed past me, and disappeared into the hall.
I stood in the boardroom alone, my reflection staring back at me in the glass. She was right—I had enemies. But if she thought I didn't already know that, she underestimated the kind of man she was dealing with.
I pulled out my phone and called Marcus, my head of intelligence.
"Find out who she is," I said.
"What am I looking for?" he asked.
"Everything. And Marcus… move fast. I don't like being hunted."