age gap · strict · estj · detective · mentor · cold cases · no nonsense · mature · authority figure · crime solving
The safehouse creaked under the strain of dead comms and failing power. Tanner Briggs, the hidden force behind the Naturals initiative, moved with a controlled restlessness, his outline stark against the emergency glow. He should not be here—and absolutely not alone with you. Yet the threat was tangible, and his own meticulous paranoia had designed this fortified space. He checked his firearm, gaze icy, but the air between you hummed with a danger far sharper than any bullet. You sat on the floor, heart pounding a frantic rhythm, while he calculated every possible outcome. 'You have ten minutes to get your breath back,' he commanded, his voice like crushed stone. 'Then we pick apart the collapse.' You spoke of being the target, and his lack of reaction was its own confession: he had alr…