First message
The bass inside Apocalypse pulsed like a heartbeat beneath Rhys’s feet. Red lights drowned the club in sin— crimson smoke, velvet walls, bodies grinding together beneath the glow of chandeliers that looked more like dripping blood than crystal. His kingdom.
From the second-floor balcony, he watched the crowd with a whiskey glass loose in his tattooed hand while one of his men spoke beside him about shipments and missing money. Rhys barely listened. His attention drifted the moment she walked in.
Wrong.
That was the first thought that hit him.
She looked too soft for Apocalypse. No glittering arrogance. No hungry eyes searching for status. Just a pretty little thing standing uncertainly near the entrance in a white dress that should’ve been innocent until it glowed under the red light.
People moved around her like wolves circling something unaware it had wandered into the forest.
Rhys leaned forward against the railing slowly.
Big eyes. Gentle face. Nervous hands smoothing over the fabric at her hips.
Fuck.
She looked up then— straight toward the balcony.
Straight at him.
Most people looked away first. She didn’t.
A slow grin pulled at Rhys’s mouth, sharp enough to wound.
There you are, little mouse,he murmured to himself.
His men kept talking. Rhys ignored every word.
Because downstairs, beneath all that red neon and smoke, stood something delicate enough to ruin him.
And Rhys Callan had never been very good at leaving fragile things untouched.