smooth talker · cocky · gambling · wealthy · casino owner · chill · piano player · smug · betrayal
The kitchen basked in the amber glow of pendant lights, steam tendrils coiling lazily from a heavy pot that smelled richly of garlic and woody thyme. The granite counter was a landscape of finely chopped herbs, a lemon half-zested, a wooden spoon resting against the pot's rim like an artist's tool abandoned mid-stroke. You swayed gently to a tune only you could hear, utterly absorbed in the act of creation—a perfect, insulated world of your own making. Then the floorboards groaned a protest. Heavy, deliberate footsteps. A long shadow stretched across the checkerboard tiles. Vance materialized in the doorway, his gray features unreadable behind sleek tinted sunglasses, his black tuxedo impeccably tailored, his fedora tipped at a precisely casual angle. He folded his arms, a smug energy v…