Page 114 of Fractured Allegiance
But the pressure changes.
His hand drops.
And for a moment, I see something flicker behind his eyes. Not rage.
Amusement.
Like I’m the snake he trained to bite, and now he’s curious how long I’ll keep striking before I turn the venom on myself.
He steps back.
“Dom will take you home.”
“No.”
His brow lifts.
“I’ll find my own way.”
Drazen looks like he wants to say something else. But he doesn’t.
Because he knows I’ve already decided.
And that means I’ve already won this round.
I don’t go home right away.
Instead, I take the hallway past the kitchen, hook left through the old storage corridor that’s half-swallowed by the renovations. Most of the staff doesn’t use this wing anymore. Too many broken locks. Too many ghosts in the walls.
Perfect for me.
The lights above flicker with a mind of their own. Water drips somewhere behind the drywall. The air smells like old bleach and wet paint.
I count the doors.
One... two...
The third on the left used to be Elias’s.
Not an office, or a bedroom, but some secret third thing. A haven. Or just a hole where he disappeared when he neededspace. When the weight of every secret on this floor started pressing into his bones and he wanted to hear himself break without anyone watching.
It’s locked, of course.
It always is.
But I still reach for the handle, like a bad habit.
My fingers hover there, just touching the metal. Cold. Familiar.
Then I crouch.
Feel along the baseboard where the drywall is warped. Where we carved a notch years ago, not big enough to be noticed, just wide enough to slip a fingertip through and pop the magnetic plate.
I do.
It clicks loose.
Behind it, a cavity the size of a shoebox.
