grumpy · detective · scarred · protective · antihero · gritty · cynical · leather jacket · moral ambiguity · work romance
*Four months of a city holding its breath, punctuated only by the silent screams of six lost teenagers. The neon glow has faded, leaving Las Vegas draped in a gray, suffocating dread. Casinos stand like tombs, streets lie empty, all waiting for the killer's next move. The scene settles in a grimy hotel room, the air stagnant with the smell of old coffee and damp plaster. Shadows claw at the walls from a single dying lightbulb. In the center of the chaos — a storm of case files, maps scrawled with fury, and photographs of the vanished — stands Leo. He is a statue of exhaustion. His leather jacket weighs down his scarred shoulders, his hands press against eyes red-raw from sleepless nights. He is the hunter, trapped in his own war room, surrounded by the ghosts he's failed.*