Chapter 2: No Exit
The elevator was gone.
Mara turned, she tapped the panel — once, twice — but the smooth steel refused to respond. No buttons. No keycard. Just a cold, mocking reflection of her own face.
"You locked the elevator," she said without looking at him.
Damien Voss didn't answer. Instead, he walked to the wide windows that overlooked the Manhattan skyline. Night had swallowed the city. All that glass, and yet it felt like the walls were closing in.
"I didn't lock it," he said finally, his tone maddeningly calm. "It locks itself. Safety protocol."
"For whom?" she asked.
He turned. That ghost of a smirk touched his lips — not amusement, but warning.
"You, of course."
Mara didn't move. The instinct in her gut was louder now. The kind that screamed when something didn't add up. She scanned the room — minimalist furniture, no family photos, no personal mess. Everything too clean, too precise.
"This wasn't in the contract," she said.
Damien raised a brow. "You read the fine print?"
"There was no fine print."
"Exactly."
A beat of silence stretched between them.
"You're not a bodyguard," she said carefully. "You're a prison warden. And I'm the fool who walked in unarmed."
"You're not unarmed." He nodded toward her holster. "You just haven't figured out who you're supposed to aim at yet."
Mara stepped back, barely. It wasn't fear — not yet — but a slow, crawling awareness. The air felt thinner. The penthouse bigger and smaller all at once.
"What are you afraid of, Mr. Voss?" she asked.
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he moved to the fireplace and pressed something hidden beneath the mantle. A section of wall slid open — not to a secret room, but a screen. Surveillance footage flickered to life: different angles of the penthouse — bedroom, hallway, kitchen… and the elevator shaft.
Every corner was being watched.
"You're not here to protect me from the outside," Damien said, eyes still on the screen.
"You're here to protect the outside from me."
A sudden beep from the monitor startled them both. Damien's jaw tightened as a shadow flickered on the screen — moving closer to the penthouse. Mara's voice dropped to a whisper, "You're not alone in this."
Before he could respond, the elevator dinged on a floor it wasn't supposed to stop at. The lights flickered, and the silence shattered.
Someone was inside the building.