Asher pov
The night was restless, but so was I.
I had spent years perfecting the art of control over my thoughts, my instincts, my body. Yet one encounter with Rose Varela and control was slipping through my fingers like water.
She wasn't the kind of woman a man could afford to want. She was carved from steel and shadows, and she carried her power like a blade sheathed against her skin. Standing near her, I felt both the cut of the edge and the seduction of the steel.
But she was also my only path forward and the only one I want.
The Serpents weren't just dangerous anymore—they were reckless, bold in a way that spelled war. Adrian had made his move, and Rose was the key to answering it. That truth sat heavy on my chest as I moved through her stronghold that evening, her people watching me with barely veiled hostility. They tolerated me because she commanded it, and only because of that.
When I found her, she was at the head of a long oak table, maps and marked photographs spread before her like pieces of a game she was already winning. She didn't look up when I entered, though I knew she'd felt me there the moment the door opened.
"You're late," she said, her voice calm, deliberate. Not looking at me.
Look at me.
"You didn't give me a time." Look at me
Her eyes lifted to mine, sharp, gleaming. "Exactly." When her eyes met mine, it was like I belong there with her, no… this is where I'm meant to be.
I almost smiled, but the tension between us didn't leave room for softness. I pulled a chair across from her, my hands resting on the table's edge. "Adrian won't sit still forever. If Shadowhand's sheltering him, he'll move from one den to another until he's ready to strike. We need to cut off his routes before he slips beyond our reach."
She leaned back in her chair, the candlelight flickering across her face, making her look almost unreal. "We? That's bold of you, Detective King. Since when did the wolf decide to run with the vipers?"
"Since the prey became mutual."
That drew the faintest smirk from her, though her eyes never softened. She studied me as if weighing not just my words, but the truth in my pulse, the tension in my shoulders. Rose had a gift for cutting a man open without lifting a knife.
"You want him gone," she said after a beat, her voice dropping into something quieter, almost intimate. "But I can't decide if it's because of loyalty to your badge… or something else." she didn't trust me.
Her words shouldn't have landed as hard as they did. I didn't answer immediately, and that hesitation was all she needed. She smiled, but it was sharp, dangerous.
"Careful, Asher," she murmured. "My blade is sharp and pistol is loaded."
I leaned forward slightly, closing the distance. "This alliance rose is mutual"
She reached for a marker and dragged a circle over the map. "Shadowhand has three safehouses in the city. Adrian is in one of them. We burn the wrong one, we start a war we can't finish."
I studied the map, but my focus kept tugging back to her—the way her fingers moved, graceful and controlled; the way her hair slipped over her shoulder when she leaned forward; the quiet confidence in every word she spoke. She was magnetic in a way that felt less like gravity and more like a storm drawing me into its eye.
"Then we don't burn," I said finally. "We choke. Cut off supplies, block movement, close in until there's nowhere left to run. If Adrian's hiding under their wing, he'll surface when Shadowhand starts to feel the heat."
Rose's eyes gleamed with interest, though her face betrayed nothing else. "You speak like a man used to playing the long game."
"I am."
Her gaze lingered on me, and then, slowly, she leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as if she were testing me with silence alone. "And what happens when we find him, Asher? Do you hand him over to your superiors… or do you let me do what I've been waiting to do since the night he betrayed me?"
I was silent. I'm always silent. But the closer I stood to her, the murkier the lines became.
"I suppose that depends," I said at last, "on whether your revenge keeps the city standing."
Her lips curved, slow and deliberate. "Oh, it will. The city will stand. Adrian, on the other hand…" She dragged her nail across the photograph of his face. "…will not."
There was no tremor in her voice, no hesitation. Just conviction wrapped in silk.
I should have felt wary. Instead, I felt something dangerously close to admiration.
"You'll have your chance," I said, though my voice was rougher than I meant it to be.
For a long moment, we just looked at each other, the air between us charged and unspoken. Something in her eyes softened then, just slightly, enough to make me wonder if beneath the queen and the predator there was a woman who, like me, had long since forgotten what it meant to trust.
But before I could speak, she straightened, sweeping the photos into a neat pile. "We start with their shipments," she said briskly, her mask sliding back into place. "Shadowhand moves weapons through the docks tomorrow night. We hit them there. Quietly. No noise, no witnesses."
"And if Adrian's there?"
Her eyes met mine, sharp and unflinching. "Then he dies."
The room felt colder after she said it, though the heat in her gaze never faltered. I pushed back from the table, rising to my feet.
"Then I'll be there."
For the first time, her expression wavered, just slightly. A flicker of something like approval—or maybe temptation. She rose as well, stepping close enough that her shoulder brushed mine as she passed.
"You'd better keep up, Detective," she murmured as she moved toward the door. "Because if you fall behind, I won't wait."
The brush of her presence lingered even after she was gone, leaving me standing in the quiet room, staring down at Adrian's face.
I didn't know whether this alliance would save me or ruin me.
But I knew one thing for certain.
Rose Varela was a fire I was already too close to, and the closer I drew, the harder it became to tell if I wanted to put it out
or let it burn me alive.