Page 1 — The Meeting
The night rain fell in thin, relentless sheets — the kind that whispered secrets against the glass. Adrian Cole sat by the window of his penthouse suite, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand, watching the city drown beneath a veil of silver light. To the world, he was untouchable — a man with money, charm, and power. Yet beneath the tailored suit and calm exterior lived a silence that clung like a curse. Every success felt hollow, every night stretched longer than the last.
Down below, the streets shimmered with puddles and neon. A boy stood under a flickering sign — soaked, shivering, and utterly lost. His name was Eli Rivers, a twenty-one-year-old who had run from everything that once hurt him. The rain plastered his hair to his skin, tracing the fragile line of his jaw. Still, when his gray eyes lifted through the storm and met Adrian's, they held a quiet defiance that stopped him cold.
It should have been nothing — a passing glance through the night. But something in that gaze stirred the darker parts of Adrian's soul, the parts that longed to claim something untouched.
Before he could question himself, Adrian was already downstairs. The storm wrapped around him as he crossed the pavement toward the boy.
"Looking for shelter?" His voice was low, smooth, and edged with control.
Eli hesitated, uncertainty flickering in his expression. "Just… anywhere dry."
A faint smile curved Adrian's lips. "Come with me."
It wasn't a request; it was an order wrapped in velvet.
The sleek black car waited at the curb, its engine humming softly against the rain. Eli climbed in, trembling from cold and uncertainty. The faint scent of whiskey and cedar surrounded him — expensive, intoxicating, and strangely comforting.
As the city lights blurred past the tinted glass, Eli stole a glance at the man beside him — the stranger whose eyes looked both dangerous and lonely. Adrian caught the glance and looked away, his jaw tightening as if trying to suppress a thought.
"Do you often pick up strangers in the rain?" Eli asked quietly.
Adrian's lips twitched. "Only the ones who stare back."
The silence that followed wasn't awkward — it was heavy, charged with something neither of them could name. When the car stopped before the towering glass building, Eli hesitated again. He didn't know what waited for him inside, only that his heart was already caught somewhere between fear and fascination.
Adrian stepped out first, his umbrella unfolding like a shadow. "You'll catch a cold if you keep thinking," he murmured, offering a hand that Eli took without understanding why.
And as they entered the warmth of the elevator, the rain whispering faintly beyond the walls, both of them knew — something irreversible had just begun.
Because sometimes, broken things are drawn to the darkness that understands them… and the most dangerous storms are not the ones outside, but t
he ones we walk into willingly.