They came in suits, smiled with lies, now they beg with broken teeth.

——-

Alexandra's POV

"Boss."

The greeting was curt, automatic, even but l

couldn't tell anymore if these were my men or remnants of Chase's. I didn't care enough to ask. Their loyalty felt conditional at best, bought rather than earned. So I just glared, cutting a clean path between them like a cold wind through tall grass.

They stepped back. Obedient. Maybe fearful.

They should be.

Even if these particular faces hadn't directly failed me, they still worked beneath me. Which meant they'd answer for the silence, the incompetence, the gaps. Whether it was one man lost...