"Axel, I need to meet you."
His eyes narrowed instantly.
The shock was not in the message itself but in the fact that an unknown number had reached him at all. Very few people had direct access to his cell phone.
Usually, everyone who contacts him goes through his secretary rather than reaching out directly.
"How did this unknown number get through?" he murmured.
His instincts flared.
Without hesitation, Axel typed out a message to Collins.
"How is an unknown number able to contact my phone? Investigate immediately. I am turning off my phone. Call me at my private number."
He sent the message, then powered the device down.
The silence that followed felt heavy, charged with something unseen.
Axel slipped the phone back into his pocket, his expression slowly dark and alert.
...
As the morning began to break, Axel Knight gently rose from the sofa and approached Oliver's bed.
