Chapter 1:THE ASSIGNMENT
The first rule of being an assassin was simple.
Never get attached.
Aria Vale had learned that rule before she was old enough to understand what attachment meant.
She had spent years turning herself into someone who didn't hesitate. Someone who could walk into a room full of strangers, study every face, and leave without remembering a single one.
Feelings were distractions.
Trust was dangerous.
Love was a weakness.
And Aria had never been weak.
At twenty-six, she was the highest-ranked female operative in the Black Veil organization, an underground network feared by people who knew it existed and dismissed as a myth by everyone else.
Aria preferred it that way.
The less people knew about Black Veil, the longer she stayed alive.
She sat alone in the back of a dark room, her legs crossed as she waited for her next assignment.
The walls were black.
The lights were low.
A single clock ticked above the door.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Aria glanced at it.
11:47 p.m.
The door finally opened.
Her commander stepped inside carrying a black envelope.
He didn't greet her.
He never did.
He placed the envelope on the table between them.
"Your next assignment."
Aria looked at it.
"Who?"
"High priority."
That was all he said.
She picked up the envelope and opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A man.
Dark hair.
Sharp features.
Calm eyes.
A faint scar ran through one eyebrow.
Beneath the photograph was a name.
ELIAS CROSS.
Aria studied the picture.
"What's his crime?"
Her commander leaned against the desk.
"You don't need to know."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I usually do."
"Not this time."
Aria looked back at the photograph.
There were very few things she disliked, but incomplete information was one of them.
She turned the page.
There was an address.
ASTER HOTEL.
A time.
MIDNIGHT.
And three words.
ELIMINATE THE TARGET.
Aria closed the file.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
She stood.
Her commander watched her carefully.
"Aria."
She stopped at the door.
"Don't make this complicated."
She glanced over her shoulder.
"I never do."
Then she walked away.
---
The Aster Hotel stood in the center of the city like a palace made of glass.
Its windows reflected the lights of the streets below, and expensive cars lined the entrance.
Inside, people laughed over expensive dinners, unaware that danger had just walked through the front doors.
Aria entered wearing a simple black dress.
Nothing about her appearance suggested who she really was.
That was the point.
She looked like any other young woman attending a late-night event.
Her eyes moved across the room.
One entrance.
Two security guards.
Four cameras.
Three exits.
Elias Cross was supposed to be somewhere inside.
Aria touched the earpiece hidden beneath her hair.
"Target located?"
Silence.
She frowned.
Black Veil's communication system had gone unusually quiet.
She checked her watch.
11:56 p.m.
Four minutes.
Her eyes moved across the crowded room again.
Then she saw him.
Elias.
He was sitting alone beside a large window overlooking the city.
He wasn't surrounded by bodyguards.
He wasn't checking his phone.
He wasn't looking nervous.
He simply sat there with a glass of water in front of him, watching the city lights.
Aria stared at him for several seconds.
Something about him bothered her.
She couldn't explain what.
Perhaps it was how calm he looked.
Most people who knew they were being watched became nervous.
Elias looked as though he knew exactly where everyone in the room was.
Including her.
Aria began walking toward him.
Halfway there, his eyes lifted.
Their gazes met.
He smiled.
Not a nervous smile.
Not a polite smile.
A knowing one.
Aria stopped for half a second.
Then continued.
She reached his table.
"Is this seat taken?"
Elias looked at the empty chair opposite him.
"No."
She sat.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then he smiled.
"You've been watching me."
Aria kept her expression calm.
"Maybe I like the view."
His smile grew.
"Maybe."
She expected him to become suspicious.
Instead, he leaned back.
"So, what's your name?"
"Aria."
"Just Aria?"
"For tonight."
He laughed quietly.
"Interesting."
"What?"
"You answer questions like you're hiding something."
Aria looked at him.
"Maybe I am."
There was a pause.
Then Elias said, "Fair enough."
Aria studied him carefully.
His file had described him as dangerous.
But sitting across from him, she couldn't see it.
There was no arrogance.
No cruelty.
No obvious sign of the man Black Veil had ordered her to eliminate.
Instead, there was something almost gentle about him.
And that was what made her uncomfortable.
She had spent years learning how to read people.
Elias was difficult to read.
"So," he said, "what brings you here?"
"Couldn't sleep."
"That's a terrible excuse."
"Why?"
"Because you don't look tired."
Aria almost smiled.
Almost.
"You notice a lot."
"I have to."
"Why?"
"Because people aren't always what they seem."
The words landed differently than they should have.
Aria looked at him.
For a moment, she wondered if he knew.
Then Elias looked away.
"I come here when I need to think."
"About what?"
"Leaving."
"Leaving what?"
He looked at the city.
"Everything."
His voice had changed.
It wasn't playful anymore.
He looked tired.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
"I've spent years surrounded by people who only care about power," he said. "Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to wake up somewhere nobody knows my name."
Aria listened.
She wasn't supposed to care.
But she did.
"Where would you go?"
Elias smiled faintly.
"Somewhere quiet."
"That's vague."
"Maybe a small town."
"You're not a small-town person."
He laughed.
"You've known me for fifteen minutes."
"Still."
"And what kind of person am I?"
Aria hesitated.
"Someone who doesn't belong here."
For the first time, Elias didn't smile.
He simply looked at her.
"You might be right."
Midnight arrived.
Aria's phone vibrated inside her purse.
Once.
She didn't check it.
It vibrated again.
She knew what it said.
COMPLETE THE MISSION.
Her fingers tightened around the edge of the table.
She looked at Elias.
He was telling her about the first time he'd seen the city from the top of the Aster Hotel.
She wasn't listening anymore.
Her mind was somewhere else.
She had completed dozens of assignments.
She had never questioned an order.
So why couldn't she do this one?
Her hand slowly moved toward the weapon concealed beneath her jacket.
Elias stopped speaking.
His eyes dropped briefly toward her hand.
Then returned to her face.
"Are you okay?"
Aria froze.
She pulled her hand away.
"Fine."
"You don't look fine."
She looked into his eyes.
There was no fear there.
Only concern.
That confused her more than anything.
Her phone vibrated again.
MIDNIGHT. COMPLETE THE MISSION.
Aria stared at Elias.
She had been trained to see targets as names.
Not people.
Names were easier to eliminate.
But Elias Cross was no longer a name on a piece of paper.
He was sitting in front of her.
Laughing.
Talking.
Looking at her as though she were more than a weapon.
And suddenly, the first rule of being an assassin became the only thought in her mind.
Never get attached.
Aria stood.
Elias looked up.
"Leaving already?"
She nodded.
"I have somewhere to be."
He studied her face.
"Will I see you again?"
Aria should have said no.
Instead, after a long silence, she whispered,
"Maybe."
She turned and walked toward the exit.
Behind her, Elias continued watching.
Outside, the cold night air hit her face.
Her phone vibrated one final time.
MISSION FAILED.
Aria stared at the message.
For the first time in her career, she had disobeyed Black Veil.
And she had no idea why.
Except for one terrifying possibility.
She was beginning to care about the man she had been sent to kill.
