Naomi’s Pov;

By evening, the base felt too tight.

Too many people, too many whispers, too much movement. The kind of crowdedness that didn’t come from bodies but from pressure invisible, quiet, heavy.

Everyone sensed a shift.

They didn’t know it was personal.

They didn’t know it had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with the way Cassian had looked at me in that warehouse, like I’d just peeled open something he had spent years burying.

I stayed busy.

Checked inventory. Cleaned my gun twice. Helped Mara reorganize surveillance footage. I wanted to outrun my own thoughts, but they kept catching up.

It didn’t help that...