Lucas didn’t move when Noah wandered over, hands shoved in his pockets, his smile sharp, easy, all false warmth. The way he waved at them like they were old friends meeting by chance set Lucas’s teeth on edge, but he held himself still, waiting.

  Noah knew what he was doing.

  Lucas saw it in the way his stride was unhurried, in the way his posture remained loose. He wasn’t trying to disarm them. He was enjoying this, stretching it out, waiting to see how far he could push before one of them reacted.

  Vivian shifted beside him, tense, her breath barely audible, but Lucas didn’t look at her. His focus stayed locked on Noah. The moment he stepped too close, Lucas moved in front of her, cutting off whatever path he thought he had.

  Noah laughed under his breath, tilting his head as he lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Ooooh, heel boy. I’ve come to negotiate.”

  Lucas didn’t answer.

  “There’s no need to negotiate,” he said.

  Noah’s smile widened, his gaze flicking briefly toward Vivian before settling back on him. “Oh, I think there is. Unless you want our friend Vivian—hi Vivian, sorry about before—” Lucas saw her tense at that, her hands clenching into fists, her body stiffening beside him. “—to go to jail. Or die.”

  Lucas felt the shift before he saw it. The words had hit something raw, something too sharp for her to suppress.

  Vivian’s breathing changed, a slight hitch before she forced it steady. Her anger wasn’t a slow burn. It was quick, violent, the kind that came from something too fresh to push down. The mention of sorry about before, the easy dismissal of everything he had done, the way he had set her up, the way he had stood back and watched while another man put his hands on her.

  Lucas didn’t let himself turn to look at her, but he could feel the weight of her fury.

  Noah was pushing her on purpose.

  The bastard was enjoying this.

  “Why don’t we go somewhere quiet so we can chat?” Noah suggested, smiling as if he hadn’t just threatened her life.

  Lucas hated that he was right.

  The parking garage was cold, the smell of damp concrete and motor oil pressing into the air. The overhead lights buzzed faintly, casting weak yellow pools of light across the floor, stretching their shadows out in long, uneven streaks. Every movement echoed, the space feeling larger and emptier than it should have.

  Noah walked toward a concrete pillar, positioning himself near an exit, waiting for them like he had expected this outcome from the beginning.

  Lucas didn’t give him a chance to speak.

  His fist drove straight into Noah’s gut, forcing the air from his lungs in a harsh wheeze. Noah barely had time to recover before Lucas’s knee snapped up, catching him in the ribs. He staggered, but before he could fully register the hit, another punch crashed into his face, sending him to the ground.

  He hit the concrete hard, his breath leaving him in a ragged exhale. His ears rang, his ribs screamed in protest, and his face burned where Lucas’s fist had connected. He had expected this, had known the second he approached that Lucas wasn’t going to waste time.

  Noah wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, his fingers brushing over the deep ache in his jaw. His ribs burned where Lucas’s knee had connected, his stomach twisted with the dull, throbbing pain of every kick Vivian had landed. He had prepared for Lucas to hit him. He had expected to be knocked to the ground. But Vivian had been a surprise.

  The first kick had caught him off guard. The second had made something inside him snap to attention. By the third, her breath had turned ragged, her voice breaking with every accusation.

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  “You tried to pin it on me!”

  Her foot slammed into his ribs, the force of it sending another sharp wave of pain through his body.

  “You led me into that stupid alley on purpose!”

  She kicked him again, harder than before.

  “You let that disgusting bastard attack me!”

  The words hit just as hard as the impact, but she wasn’t finished. She let out a sound that was somewhere between frustration and fury before driving the final blow into his stomach.

  “I am going to kill you!”

  Lucas had let her go on longer than Noah expected. He had watched, waiting, only stepping in once he was satisfied that she had let it out. Vivian was still breathing hard, her body shaking with adrenaline, her hands curled into fists at her sides. She had spent everything she had on him, and he felt every ounce of it in his bones.

  Noah groaned, shifting onto his side, pressing his palm against the cold concrete. He coughed, his body protesting every movement, his ribs throbbing with a deep, spreading ache. The worst part wasn’t the pain. It was the satisfaction crawling up his spine, settling in his chest, something pleased and wrong.

  He pushed himself up, exhaling through gritted teeth, ignoring the taste of blood.

  “Fair enough,” he muttered, still catching his breath. “Guess I deserved that.”

  Lucas didn’t move. Vivian was staring past him, still too wound up to speak.

  Noah wiped his lip again, running his tongue over the split there before shaking his head.

  “Can we talk now?”

  Lucas remained still, but the tension in his stance hadn’t lessened. He was still ready to knock him down again.

  Vivian finally turned her attention back to Noah, her arms crossing tightly over her chest. “Why are we here, Noah?”

  She wasn’t calm yet. Her shoulders were still stiff, her nails digging into the sleeves of the hoodie, her jaw tight. She wanted an answer, but she wanted another excuse to hurt him just as much.

  He could work with that.

  “You want to know why you’re here?” His smile lingered, light, careless, something that didn’t belong in the moment. “Because I’m giving you a choice.”

  Lucas’s stare didn’t waver. “A choice.”

  Noah lifted a finger. “One. The cops don’t like unfinished business.”

  Vivian’s body went rigid. Lucas adjusted his stance, the shift barely perceptible.

  “It’s funny how much a single object can change things,” Noah continued. “One missing weapon, one set of prints, and suddenly, our little liability here”—he tilted his chin toward Vivian, watching the sharp inhale she tried to hide—“isn’t just a witness. She’s a suspect.”

  Lucas’s fists curled slightly.

  “Good thing I’m sentimental,” Noah mused. “Otherwise, this might’ve ended with a very different kind of news headline.”

  The message was clear.

  Noah had the hammer.

  It was leverage, the kind that could decide whether this story ended quietly or with Vivian locked away.

  He lifted a second finger. “Two. The phone.”

  Vivian’s breathing wasn’t steady anymore. Lucas’s gaze sharpened.

  “I wonder what our dead friend had in there,” Noah murmured. “His last calls, his last messages. Evidence, maybe? A trail leading straight back to whoever ordered Vince’s execution?”

  Lucas was still calculating. He wasn’t the type to react impulsively, and Noah knew that if he stayed quiet for too long, it meant he was weighing the risks.

  “Or maybe I already know,” Noah said, letting the thought hang between them. “Maybe that’s why I’m still standing here, and the two of you are wasting your time instead of figuring out what really matters.”

  Lucas exhaled, slow and deliberate.

  Noah took a step forward, lowering his voice. “You want to fight me? Fine. But if I go down, so does she.”

  Vivian tensed. Lucas’s hands flexed.

  Noah watched them both, waiting for the weight of his words to fully settle. “You don’t get to protect her, Lucas. Not from this. You want her alive? You let me handle it.”

  Lucas didn’t like it.

  Vivian hated it more.

  Neither of them spoke.

  Noah shifted his stance, letting his voice drop further. “This is the part where you make a decision.”

  Lucas remained motionless, his mind working through the options, looking for an opening that didn’t exist.

  Noah gave him time.

  “I don’t need you to trust me. I don’t even need you to like me. But I do need you to be smart. And right now, the smartest thing you can do is keep your mouth shut and stay out of my way.”

  Lucas didn’t answer.

  Noah let the silence stretch just long enough before adding, “Or, if you prefer, I can just walk away. And we’ll see how long she lasts when the people who actually run your world start noticing she’s still breathing.”

  Lucas wasn’t stupid.

  He knew what Noah was doing.

  He knew this was about control, about setting the terms, about ensuring that neither of them had an option but to follow his lead.

  He hated it.

  Noah didn’t wait for a response. He turned toward the exit, stretching his arms behind his head, wincing at the sharp pull in his ribs.

  Lucas’s voice cut through the silence.

  “What do you want?”

  Noah grinned, rolling his shoulders before glancing back. “You out of my way. If Vivian wants to tag along, I’ll make an exception. We are classmates, after all. I’ve known her for years.”

  His gaze flicked to Vivian, watching the shift in her expression, the slow realization setting in that she wasn’t getting out of this.

  “What do you think, Viv?” His voice was playful, but there was nothing soft about it. “We’re a pretty good team, right? Just like in class.”

  She didn’t answer.

  She didn’t have to.

  The decision had already been made.