Lucy didn't expect to find her ex-CTO waiting at the bar. The familiar low hum of the evening crowd at 'The Alchemist' usually soothed her frayed nerves, but the sight of him sent a jolt of pure, unadulterated acid through her veins.
But there he was—Jason, smug as ever, a sardonic twist to his lips, sipping a Manhattan like he hadn't torched half her codebase and vanished six months ago, leaving her team scrambling in the digital wreckage. His tailored suit seemed to mock her, a symbol of the success she felt he'd deliberately denied her.
Cole, ever observant, stepped protectively closer, his hand instinctively going to the small of her back. "You know this guy?" His voice was low, edged with a possessiveness that warmed her despite the chill Jason inflicted.
"Unfortunately," Lucy muttered, the single word dripping with ice. The air around them, already cool from the bar's air conditioning, seemed to drop another ten degrees.
