The car hummed through the streets, neon reflections sliding across the windshield.
Alex's hands rested easy on the wheel, calm, unhurried. Beside him, Lila sat a little too close, her perfume thick in the warm air of the car.
"Where to?" he asked, voice calm but attentive, careful not to break the easy rhythm of the drive.
Lila adjusted slightly in the passenger seat, her hands resting on her lap. "Turn left at the next junction, then straight for about twenty minutes. My apartment's just past the park... third building on the right."
Her voice stayed steady, but inside, every carefully rehearsed plan she'd built between the hospital corridor and the car was already unraveling.
She had planned this moment. Sophia's instructions still echoed in her mind... get close to him, make him lower his guard. It was supposed to be strategy. Just strategy.
