The hospital corridors had settled into an uneasy quiet—one born not from calm, but from confusion stretched too thin to hold.
Mr. Luke's disappearance was already circulating in hushed tones. Nurses whispered in corners. Security combed every hallway. A lockdown protocol flickered on and off like the staff couldn't decide if this was a medical emergency or something worse.
Lena stood near the vending machines, arms wrapped around herself, trying to stay steady. Sela and Bena had gone to fill out forms. Moody was talking to a nurse across the hall, low-voiced, tense.
Her head still rang with her father's last warning.
Don't trust the man with the silver mark.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
I trusted him anyway.
Her chest tightened.
She needed air. Or to walk. Or something.
So she turned—and collided full-force into someone.
Hard.
The impact jolted the breath out of her. Her elbow knocked against the wall, and pain shot up her arm.
"Watch where you're—!" she snapped, before she fully saw the person she was yelling at.
Grey coat. Strong build. Dark eyes like obsidian—sharp, unreadable.
Her breath hitched.
He steadied her by the shoulders before quickly pulling his hands back, jaw tightening, though his eyes staring deep into hers making him recall every detail for the last time they met even though it didn't end up well.
"Sorry," he said, voice low. Rough. Tired. After along pause. "Didn't mean to scare you."
This time, she didn't yell again. She was tired of shouting. All she needed was space.
"Wh—what are you doing here?" she asked, heart thudding. "Why are you everywhere lately?"
Brine's eyes softened—barely.
"Coincidence," he said forcing a smile.
Lena didn't believe it. Not for a second. Something in the way he watched her—protective, almost possessive—made her skin prickle.
"How's your father?" he asked quietly.
Lena swallowed hard. Her voice cracked.
"How do you know him? She asked with a suspicious tone."
" Umm! Um! Once was my partner. In some kind of business project we were both working on. He's an old friend of mine.' He lied though trying to fixed his posture.
" If you say so, but I'm sorry because he's dead and his body is missing. They are looking for him.
Brine's jaw twitched. Not out of shock.
Out of anger.
Or grief.
She didn't know anything at all. He put his hands inside his pocket then leaned on the wall. For a moment he wanted to say something different but he ended with nothing much.
"I'm sorry," he murmured—and she believed him. More than she wanted to. Despite them being strangers to each other, She didn't know why her eyes had to see something different in him.
Before she could respond, footsteps approached.
Heavy ones.
Brine's posture changed instantly—like something cold slid down his spine.
Because Moody was walking toward them.
His silver mark glinted under the hallway lights like a blade.
He froze the moment he saw her talking to someone.
Brine froze too.
Two men.
Two storms.
And for a second, the hallway felt too narrow for both.
Moody's eyes sharpened. "What are you doing here?"
Brine's reply was flat, unbothered. "Visiting someone."
Moody didn't believe it. Not even remotely. Lena could feel the tension between them tightening like a rope around her throat.
"You two… know each other?" she asked slowly.
Both men answered at once.
"No," Brine said.
"Yes," Moody said.
Then they stopped and stared at each other again—both realizing what the other had said.
Moody cleared his throat, masking whatever emotion flickered there. "We've… crossed paths."
Brine's jaw clenched. "Once."
Somewhere down the hall, an alarm blared—another reminder that a dead man had vanished.
Moody broke eye contact first. "Lena, we should go. They want to ask you more questions."
Brine looked at her too. "If you need anything… I'll be around."
That didn't sound like a passing statement.
It sounded like a promise.
Or a warning.
Lena's stomach twisted. She nodded slowly—unsure why his presence made her feel safer and more threatened at the same time.
Moody stepped beside her, subtly placing himself between her and Brine.
Brine's eyebrow lifted. Not jealous.
Challenging.
Moody didn't back down.
For a moment, Lena swore she felt something hot and electric between them—two storms meeting, recognizing each other without understanding why.
But then—
A nurse called Moody's name. Lena tugged lightly on his sleeve, and he followed her.
Brine watched them go, expression unreadable.
When they disappeared around the corner, he pulled out his phone.
Dialed.
It connected instantly.
A voice on the other end rasped, "Report."
Brine kept his eyes on the corridor where Lena had gone.
"He's not dead," Brine muttered. "Luke didn't just walk out. Someone moved him."
"Is Rafferty involved?"
Brine inhaled. "If he is… it means we're already too late."
A pause.
"And the girl?"
Brine's fingers curled into a fist.
"She has no idea," he murmured. "About me. About any of it."
"You'll keep watching her?"
Brine's voice softened in a way no one ever heard.
"I always have."
He ended the call.
Across the hospital, in another hallway, Moody received a message too—quiet, coded, dangerous.
—Luke's disappearance complicates the exchange.
Get the girl.
We move forward anyway.
Moody's stomach turned.
He looked at Lena walking beside him—tired, scared, trusting him because she had no one else.
Guilt flickered.
He shoved it down.
Because he needed what Mr. Rafferty promised.
He needed it more than anything he'd ever wanted.
And Lena… was the key.
---
But somewhere in the hospital—behind a locked maintenance door—someone else stirred.
A man with dried blood on his shirt.
Eyes unfocused.
Breath shallow.
Hands trembling.
Not dead.
Not gone.
Not rescued.
Mr. Luke opened his eyes, whispering one sentence to no one.
"They took me… because of her."
He collapsed back to the floor, pulse thready, consciousness slipping.
Outside, chaos continued.
But the truth?
The truth had only barely begun to surface.
And three men—Moody, Brine, and the half-dead man hidden in the walls—were all tangled in one storm.
Lena.
The girl they would each destroy themselves for…
…or destroy each other trying to reach.