Immediately, Luxury stepped out, jamming the door aggressively behind her, the cold air bit into her skin through her clothes.
She hissed in frustration.
Taking a few quick steps to her car, she got in and let out a long, tired sigh. The seatbelt clicked as she fastened it, but it did little to settle her restless mind.
Her thoughts were chaotic as Nik's words kept replaying in her head— sharp and impossible to ignore: "You keep pretending you're untouchable… smiling when you're dying inside."
Luxury burst into a hysterical laugh, loud and almost unhinged.
"I'm not pretending, I'm untouchable, jerk!" she murmured to herself, hissing in frustration again as she brought her car's engine back to life.
The tires squealed softly against the tarred ground as she pulled onto the road.
"They don't even know what they're looking for. Keep chasing nothing." she muttered with a sly grin tugging at her lips when Nik's voice echoed again in her mind about the missing file.
As she drove down the highway, she became silent for a moment, only for the soft sound of the engine and the sound of the wind against the closed windows.
Then without any warning, a flash memory blinked through her thoughts — the hum of her own voice, the faint whirring of a computer, a progress bar crawling toward completion. Her voice whispering, 'Backup complete!' and a small drive resting in her hand.
That was two years ago. A different city. A different version of her.
She shook her head lightly, pushing the memory away— back into its box.
A slow, calculating smirk settled on her face as focused on the road.
********
Mikhail entered into his apartment with a head full of noise and chaos. He pushed the door open with his shoulder, kicked his shoes off carelessly and tossed his shirt on the couch, irritation buzzing in his skin like electricity.
The missing file.
His father's voice.
Luxury's face.
Everything sat in his skull, unwanted and uninvited.
He walked to the mini-bar, poured himself water instead of vodka, then leaned against the counter as his phone buzzed again. And again. And again!
Group chat nonsense. Parties. Memes. More stupidity! Jade's face was in a dozen pictures, laughing, unbothered, completely unaware of what was happening behind the scenes.
Mikhail scowled at one of the pictures— Jade's oblivious grin felt like salt in a wound.
He ignored all of it and opened the one notification that mattered.
A message from one of the Soldati assigned to the case.
"We checked the south block. No trace. Whoever took the file knew the system."
Mikhail's jaw hardened.
"Of course they did," he muttered, his voice low and cold. "Idiots!"
He walked to his desk, turned on his laptop and pulled up the encrypted system his father's men used for internal records. His fingers moved fast, tapping in access codes only three people in Russia knew.
Within seconds, a list of every movement around the vault room appeared — timestamps, entries, surveillance logs.
Most of it was useless.
But something caught his eye.
A small gap.
Exactly seven minutes and eighteen seconds was missing from the camera feed.
He straightened up, shoulders tensing.
That wasn't a glitch.
That was precision.
Someone had wiped that section clean and known how to do it without tripping the system.
His breath froze for a second.
"Wow! Seven minutes and eighteen secs?" he gave it a thought and felt impressed but at the same time having a murderous intent about the person that had done that.
Whoever took that file wasn't just smart… they were trained.
His mind flicked unknowingly to Luxury's face in that photo earlier. The smile that didn't reach her eyes. The way her laugh felt like… distance.
He pushed the thought away immediately, annoyed at himself.
"No." he muttered. "Not him. He's just some boy with a pretty face and too much attitude."
Still, he clicked his pen aggressively and leaned back in his chair.
But the question lingered.
"Then why does it feel like he's hiding something."
*******
Luxury finally reached her condo. She barely entered but the chill she had felt from outside was overshadowed by the warmth of the room as she stepped inside, closing the door quietly behind her, careful not to wake Romeo, who was curled up on the couch, sleeping soundly.
Her coat fell on another couch as she entered her room and she moved toward the small section of the wall she had always avoided showing anyone—the hidden panel she had installed months ago. With a soft push, it slid open, revealing a small vault recessed into the wall.
Luxury crouched slightly, fingers brushing over the keypad before punching in the sequence she had memorized long ago. A faint click, then the vault swung open.
Inside lay a single flash drive labeled clearly:
DUMB FILE — O.
Her eyes lingered on it for a moment, a sly smirk tugging at her lips.
"They can keep chasing their copy," she whispered softly to herself. "The original doesn't belong to them anymore."
She carefully slid the drive back into her vault, closing the vault and pushing the panel back with the wall.
Luxury paused for a moment, letting herself breathe. The adrenaline of the night's drive, Nik's words, and the memory of the backup buzzed in her.
A quiet satisfaction settled in her chest. She was untouchable. And for once, no one could prove otherwise.
A soft chime from her phone interrupted the moment. She glanced down and it was a text from Jade:
"You okay? I saw you left early."
Luxury smiled faintly, slipping the phone back into her pocket. "Let him keep thinking everything's normal," she murmured. "He's the least of my problem."
Outside, the city hummed, unaware of the storm quietly that sat behind closed doors.
**Jade's House**
Jade slumped on his bed lazily staring at the message he had sent to Luxury feeling a mix of impatience and eagerness.
"He has read it." he thought and waited for Luxury to reply.
"Just keep playing hard to get with me." he muttered when he saw he was left on blue tick. A playful smirk tugged his lips.