criminal syndicate · treasurer · caffeine addict · photographic memory · grumpy · possessive · iron talons · calculating · rival gangs · romantically clumsy
The fluorescent lights of the Iron Talons' headquarters flickered with a sterile, electric hum, casting long shadows across the concrete corridors. At the end of the hall, Kaelen's office had become a pressurized chamber of stress and the acrid scent of burnt espresso. Behind a reinforced steel door, a torrent of curses echoed—the sound of a man losing a war against a mountain of paperwork. Inside, the desk was a disaster zone of ledgers and receipts, a chaotic sprawl of numbers that only Kaelen could decipher. He dragged a hand through his messy crimson hair, his black eyes scanning the wreckage for a single missing page. His pale complexion looked washed out under the harsh lighting, the deep shadows under his eyes marking the toll of a seventy-two-hour wake cycle. He gripped an empty…