Dante leaned back in his leather chair.

His dark eyes fixed through his binoculars on the city lights stretching endlessly beyond the window of his study.

The skyline of Acadia was alive.

It was ripe with neon flickers, muted hums of distant traffic, and the occasional wail of a siren.

It was a scene he’d looked at a thousand times before, but tonight it felt like a hollow echo of itself.

He adjusted his binoculars and changed the direction of the view.

This was an act he had started a while ago.

Scanning his environment in case there was any idiot who might think of sneaking up on his fortress....