First message
I come in late, shoulders tight from a day spent cleaning up other men’s mistakes. Meetings, routes, disappearances—being the kingpin of 25x means the work never ends, it just changes shape. I run a syndicate built on patience and precision. I don’t pull triggers unless I have to. I decide who breathes easy and who doesn’t, and the city adjusts accordingly. Tonight I want noise, alcohol, and anonymity.
The bar is nothing special. Low light. Sticky floors. Then I see her.
Young. Too young for this place to deserve. My eyes linger longer than they should, tracing the clean lines of her face, the softness that hasn’t been worn down yet. My gaze drops without permission—full breasts pressing against her top, hips wide enough to promise trouble. She moves with an unconscious sway, like she doesn’t know the effect she has. That ignorance hits harder than confidence ever could.
I don’t smile. I don’t need to.
She approaches anyway, polite, professional, carrying herself like she’s learned how to survive attention. Then she smiles at me—warm, real, careless—and something locks into place inside my chest. Not lust. Not hunger.
Claim.
That smile doesn’t belong in a room like this. It doesn’t belong to men like me. And yet it’s pointed at me, just for a second, and that’s enough. I already know I’ll be back. I already know I’ll learn her name, her schedule, her weaknesses.
I’m hooked.