~~ Liach POV ~~
If it's not for the briefing, why did he ask me to come with this forder then?
"Then why did —? I tried to ask. But he started to move, walking towards me with all majestics as if he was paid to walk like that.
I hope he doesn't get too close, because I'm trying my best to be calm here, I've been trying to forget that night but he's making it impossible for me. But he did it, he stepped so close that I can smell is fragrance.
Then his question came rushing through my ears, sending shivers down my spine.
Why is he watching me, does he not have other things to do? To the extent he now knows my habits,this man is crazy. But I didn't say anything, because right now I'm burning up. The more he talks at my ears the hotter I get.
But I don't want him getting a trace of it, so I straightened my back, looking right back at him.
"I had this room cleaned for a reason," He said.
Then what's my business with it, it's not my room.
" I wanted to see you in it."
Why would you want to see me, in here, with these mirrors reflecting over a 50 copy of me. " Why? " But he said nothing just stepping closer.
Even when I tried to move back, he took another step forward. What the fuck is this man doing? He has been acting weird for a while now, touching me, occupying my space and acting and feigning innocence.
I kept moving back until I hit the edge of the table, I have no where else to keep backing to, I'm trapped, I can't run within this space, I can't push him back because definitely he'd press even more, closer.
He is just a breath away from me, trailing his knuckles along the edge of my jaw his other hand grabbing my waist. Causing my already heating body to light. I'm drenched.
"I think you have been lying to me," he says.
" About what?" I said matching his gaze.
But he said nothing just staring at my lips, suddenly holding my waist lifting me up onto the table, bruising my cut a little. Hovering over me, his hands at each of my sides.
Then he said, " you have built the perfect profile about yourself, but people like you don't exist." Brushing his nose against mine as if he's trying to claim my lips.
" What kind of people am i, exactly?" I said, my voice barely about a whisper from the tension building inside me.
"The kind that bites when no one is watching." He said, smile that devilish smile again.
You are right Mr De Luna because I'm planning on burying my pen you right now. Because there's a pen in my blazer. I could drive it through your throat and twist. Watch you bleed on this polished floor while whispering how soft your voice sounds now.
But I don't say a word, and he moved even closer wrapping his arm around my waist pulling me a little closer to him his fingers rubbing my hips, my breath caught in my throat heavy.
Why is Sinveer doing this, this is worse than any torture I've seen and experience. Is he trying to walk into my head.
"Do you know why I haven't touched you like this, before?" He asked.
Why will you touch me like this at all. I am your personal assistant, there shouldn't be any physical contact between us, Sinveer. Instead of me saying it I swallowed it. Why? Because I also don't want him to stop.
"Because I want to see how long you'd last." He says.
How long will I last? Last to what? Why does he keep talking as if he knows something.
He slides his hand on my lower back, and I almost flinched. I almost fucking flinched to his touch. I've to leave this place before something else occurs.
"You've been playing a very careful game," he whispers, his lips breathing air at my neck "But the cracks are starting to show Liach."
My pulse betrays me, it twitches, it flickers not much but it was there. I tried to breathe slowly to control it.
If I should say what's in my mouth now, I'll taste blood—mine or his, I'm not sure which. But it'd be bad.
"Are you accusing me of something, Mr. De Luna?" I said instead.
He stared into my eyes and said" not yet." With a smile.
Not yet. Not yet. That smile of his I'm going to peel that smile off his face with my teeth.
His voice brushes my ear. "If I pushed your skirt up right now… would you stop me?"
Does he thinks I'll crumble under his weight, under his words, then he hasn't met the girl who carved her first corpse before her first kiss.
But I still don't say anything. So, he trailed his hand further down my spine. My skin burns, my brain almost went blank.
"Mr De Luna could you please move back a little"
Instead he moves closer pressing his thigh between mine, further than before, lifting my skirt upward, above my knees revealing my inner thigh.
I want to hurt him.
Not for touching me.
But for knowing how much I liked it.
He draws the word LIAR into the fogged glass like a signature. Then he walked to the door.
Leaves me standing in front of myself— my reflections, heat between my thighs, undies soak, fury burning a hole in my chest.
But before I could calm my nerves, my fist found the mirror.
And all I can think is.
Next time, I'll not allow myself to be cornered, I'll bring my blade.
~2:01 AM – APARTMENT~
I sit on the floor with an encrypted hard drive in my lap, naked my legs cross.
The blood from the mirror cut is already drying under my fingernails.
The apartment is quiet, nothing but the low hum of the city outside. It almost feels like silence. But my head is screaming.
Sinveer De Luna is starting to own pieces of me. I feel it in the way my breath catches when he speaks. In the way my legs betray me under his gaze. In the silence that followed when he whispered, "You've been playing a very careful game."
He's not wrong.
But I haven't played deep enough.
Some hours after Sinveer left me in that room and I went back to my quarters. I snuck into the De Luna Archive Echo File the Tier 2 Systems Access, I cracked the firewall in under six minutes. Reroute it through a shell account Dave Cisco tech expert taught me to bury. One by one, I start pulling names: Financial third-party shadows, Overseas laundering routes, Courier switches, Armory vendors.
The system pings when I find something tagged S-Class - RED Vault Candidates. Sinveer's private warboard.Three names are highlighted, one has a star.
Name: Carlos Juno.
Mid-tier broker. Smart enough to climb. Not smart enough to shut up. He's been tracking shipments that don't exist on the official ledgers. Stuff even Rigo doesn't have access to, I save everything to a ghost drive, and pull the logs.
After I was done I went to my quarters, which is now 2:00 am. I texted a Cisco runner: Pick-up. Level 4 asset. 1hr.
Exactly at one hour time he arrived at the location I provided. "Give this to Papa, tell him it's a code red."
"Yes, Ms. Liach."
My second plan is to kill that broker, and collect any information he possesses. Sobi decided to call Dave, he is needed in this task.
"Hey Liach, why are you calling Zaddy? Do you need me to come make you feel good?"
"Dave meet me at **** alley, I've a task I need you for."
" Just straight to business huh, no pleasantries?"
" Dave?"
"Ok, ok, Text me the address."
"Already did."
"Will be there in a, light."
3:24 AM – Marina District – Surveillance Position
The SUV is parked in an alley, masked plates, cloaked windows and I'm inside watching Carlos through the CCTV footage he hacked into. He's drunk and alone.
"This is why I love you, you are always efficient."
"Ah, Liach loves me." Dave says trying to hold me.
" Focus. "
"Ah yes, yes. What do you need this person for?"
" None of you business."
He leaned back poking his lips out.
A smile plays on my lips as I find him cute. I believe Dave is the only of Papa's workers I'm friendly to. " I'm leaving now, inform me of any changes he makes before I get to him."
"Will do that."
I waited for Carlos in the blind spot between lampposts. The moment I spotted him, I moved. My hand wraps around his throat before he even knows what city he's in.
I slammed him into the wall—hard enough to knock the wind out of him, but not enough to kill. I want him to be aware, to sober up.
"I—I work for Mr. De Luna—"
Then I tighten my grip. "That's Good, because that's why I'm here."
My blade slides between his ribs, flat side first. "Tell me about the shipments."
"I—I don't—"
I jam the blade higher. Not a puncture. Just a taste.
"Lie again and I'll hollow out your stomach while you're still blinking."
He breaks, trembling and spilling all the tea. They always do.
He gives me everything—port codes, courier codenames, even a name Sinveer flagged under an alias. It's beautiful, what a leverage.
And now that I have what I need— I make it hurt.
Two slices behind the knees which made him drop to the pavement. He tries to shriek, I cover his mouth. Not for mercy—just to savor the panic. Then I lean in, breath brushing his ear.
"This isn't about Sinveer."
"This is about me."
"I want him to bleed. And you were a good start." Then I cut out his tongue.
He dies six minutes later—longer than most.
I drag his body into the shadows, prop him against the brick like he's passed out. Then I write the word "Mine" beside him in his own blood.
Let Sinveer wonder who the message is for. Let him guess if it's about territory...or something else. Let him feel owned.
~4:03 AM – Apartment – Encrypted Transfer Complete~
I upload the files to the Cisco secure link. The ones from Carlo. The secret armory fund. The internal blackmail files buried under pet project names, Papa will know what to do with them. But I keep one copy for myself.
I don't know why I hold onto it, maybe Insurance, or control. I don't know but I felt I should hold onto it.
~4:17 AM – Shower ~
The water's hot, but not scalding. I'm not punishing myself tonight. I hummed a sound as I bathed, a waltz my mother used to play when she still had fingers that didn't shake. Washing the blood from my thighs, from my collarbone. From the blade.
And after I was done bathing, I feel fresh and breathe good oxygen, the air is clean.
It's even.
Tonight, I carved my name into Sinveer's world, and I'm not done yet.