The silence between them stretched, thick and suffocating, like the weight of unseen ghosts pressing against Eve’s ribs.

Damian hadn’t moved.

His body was still close—too close—caging her against the damp brick wall of the alley, his fingers gripping her wrist like she might try to disappear if he let go.

And maybe she would.

She swallowed, trying to calm the erratic rhythm of her pulse. The city around them was alive, yet they stood in its forgotten spaces, where neon lights couldn’t reach, where footsteps never lingered for long.

The car was gone.

Vanished into the night as if it had never existed.

But the warning still burned in the air, thick and undeniable.

Damian exhaled slowly, his gaze tracing her features like he was searching for something—fear, surrender, understanding. He didn’t look like a man who asked permission. He looked like a man who already knew the answers before the questions were spoken.

Eve forced herself to speak.

“Who was that?”

Damian tilted his head, something dark flickering behind his eyes. “You think I know?”

She narrowed her gaze. “Don’t you?”

His smirk was slow, lazy, like he was entertained by the idea that she was trying to match his confidence with defiance. He leaned in, enough for her to feel his breath against her cheek.

“If I did,” he murmured, voice like silk dragged across steel, “I wouldn’t tell you yet.”

Eve’s stomach twisted.

Every instinct told her to push him away. To escape before she became another consequence of whatever game he was playing.

And yet—

She couldn’t move.

Because deep down, beneath logic and reason, beneath the carefully crafted walls she had spent years building—

She wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Damian’s grip tightened for just a fraction of a second. A test. A warning.

And then—

He let go.

Stepped back.

The sudden absence of his touch sent a strange kind of chill through her veins, like being exposed to a colder air after standing too close to fire.

Damian studied her for a moment, then smirked again—this time sharper.

“I’ll see you soon, Eve.”

And with that, he turned.

Vanished into the night.

Like he had never been there at all.

~TO BE CONTINUED....