The warehouse district was a furnace of sunlight and smoke by the time the black limousine rolled up to the pier. The client arrived first—an older man with silver hair and an expensive limp. His watch gleamed even through the dust-laden light. He hated being early, but this wasn't a meeting one showed up late to. Two guards flanked him as he stepped onto the cracked pavement, eyes flicking warily around the fog-streaked harbor.
A few minutes later, another engine hummed low—a sleek black car gliding into the lot like a panther. The air changed. From the car's rear window, sunlight bounced sharply, masking the faces within.
Inside, Sofia blinked against the brutal morning glare that speared through the glass. After two weeks locked in a steel-dark room, the sudden light was a blade slicing her eyes open. Her wrists were cuffed behind her back, skin raw where the metal bit in.
