For four agonizing weeks, silence was the only answer Jason received.

He had set Mark on Celeste’s trail with unlimited resources, ordering every asset, contact, and surveillance channel turned inside out. Yet she remained a ghost, vanishing into the underbelly of the city without a footprint. The uncertainty ate at Jason from the inside out. Terrified that his presence would draw Celeste’s crosshairs directly to Selina, he had deliberately stayed away from the corporate tower, appearing only in brief, erratic bursts when the gnawing urge to see her overcame his restraint.

Today was no different. He arrived late in the afternoon, intending only to confirm with his own eyes that...