22. Maximum FOMO #3
But at the threshold, Burke paused and turned back.
“One more thing, Mr. . . . Gordon. That trick with the triangle? Fear, desire, and access? I used a similar approach in Egypt. Convinced a young man to acquire something very valuable for me. Worked beautifully.” His eyes glinted. “Until it didn’t.”
Then he was gone. The conference room erupted back into noise—investors arguing over allocation sizes, someone’s phone ringing with the unmistakable urgency of a wire transfer approval. But Elias couldn’t hear any of it over the roaring in his ears.
He knows.
Not everything. Not yet. But enough to be suspicious. Enough to start poking around.
Luna’s phone buzzed insistently in her pocket—once, twice, three times in rapid succession. The specific pattern made her freeze. Emergency signal. She pulled it out: Kelly. Then Scarlett. Then Kelly again.
She looked at Elias, then at the satchel in her hands. The room was still chaos—investors arguing over allocation sizes, someone’s assistant trying to get wire instructions, the energy of successful manipulation thrumming through the air like electricity.
“Hold this,” she said, pressing the leather satchel into Elias’s hands. “Don’t move. I need to take this.” She moved to the far corner of the conference room, phone pressed to her ear, one finger in her other ear to block out the noise.
Elias looked down at the satchel. Heavy. Warm. Dangerous. Through the leather he could feel the thrum of power.
Three tokens. Three chances to bend reality. But this first meeting had gone so well . . . surely they wouldn’t need all three. Right?
Elias’s hand moved before his brain could stop him.
Quick, practiced, guided by the muscle memory of a hundred cons.
As he slid open the flap of the satchel, a sudden cheer erupted from the investors when someone announced a new commitment of funds.
The noise was sharp, like a trap closing, and in that instant, Elias slipped a token into his jacket pocket, the inner one with the button, where it settled against his ribs like a guilty secret.
For Frankie.
Across the room, Luna was talking urgently into her phone, her back to him, tension in every line of her body.
Whatever Kelly was saying, it didn’t look good.
She turned back toward him, pocketing her phone.
As she approached, the weight of what he’d just done settled over Elias like a blanket of lead.
“Mama’s been in touch with Louise about that mysterious investor friend.” She reached for the satchel and he returned it, innocent as a newborn. “Apparently things are getting a little weird. She wants us back, ASAP.”
“Sure,” Elias managed. “Seems like we’re done here.” But the token in his pocket felt like it was burning through his jacket, branding him.
The two consultants made their excuses to the crowd. Luna said something about another meeting, client commitments, the usual gibberish. Together, they headed for the elevator. No one paid any mind. They were all too busy celebrating the discovery of the next unicorn.
Once the elevator doors closed, Luna sagged against the wall, the glamour rippling like water disturbed by a stone. For a second, Elias saw both faces: Lexi and Luna, overlapping, neither quite solid.
“That was something else,” she whispered.
“But it worked.” He pulled the stolen CastR visitor badge from his pocket—he’d lifted it from a distracted engineer on their way out, because old habits died hard. “We got what we came for. Plus a little insurance for next time.”
“Next time.” Luna’s laugh was borderless and slightly hysterical. “You want there to be a next time?”
She looked at him then—really looked, the glamour fading enough that he could see her actual face, exhausted and exhilarated and something else he was afraid to name.
“He recognized you,” she said. “Burke. He didn’t know it was you, but he sensed something.”
“Yeah.” Elias loosened his tie—Kyle’s tie, which was somehow too tight despite being exactly the right size. “He did.”
“And you didn’t kill him.”
“No.” He met her gaze. “I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
Because you asked me not to. Because I’m trying to be better than what I was. Because if I killed him in that room, I’d never be able to look at you again without seeing the disappointment in your face.
Out loud, he said: “Timing wasn’t right.”
“Shaw—”
“Plus,” he grasped for levity like a drowning man reaching for driftwood, “murdering someone in front of twenty investors seems like bad business.”
The elevator dinged. Lobby. Reality. The real Lexi and Kyle would be back from their coffee run by now, wondering why they’d had such an urgent need for oat milk.
As the doors opened, she touched the satchel at her side. “One down.”
His hand was steady now, and his pulse was back to normal.
But something in his chest felt torn up, like he’d swallowed broken glass.
He could still picture Burke’s smug face: a face Elias could’ve punched, would’ve grabbed by the throat, should’ve finally made pay for what he’d done to Frankie.
But he hadn’t. He’d betrayed his brother, played the good little soldier and followed Luna’s plan.
And then he’d spun around and instantly stolen from her.
Apparently there’s nobody I won’t fuck over, given the chance. He was discombobulated by it all; he wasn’t even sure if he was on his own side anymore.
They stepped out into the lobby, the glamour dissolving completely now, leaving them as themselves again.
Behind them, fifteen floors up, CastR celebrated.
Phones were lighting up with news alerts: CastR Raises Surprise Extension Round.
Magic App Shatters Funding Records. Silicon Alley’s Newest Unicorn?
Luna’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it, then showed him the screen.
A text from Scarlett: Whatever you two just did, it’s working. Tech blogs are losing their minds. Keep it up.
Elias read it, nodded, and felt nothing. No triumph. No satisfaction. Just the cold certainty that somewhere in that building, Upson Burke was making phone calls of his own.
“Come on,” Luna said, tugging his sleeve. “Let’s get out of here.”
Out on the street, Elias let himself look at her—properly look, not the stolen glances or the careful avoidance he’d been practicing since the subway car.
Her hair was coming loose from whatever professional arrangement Lexi’s glamour had imposed, falling in strands around her face.
She was exhausted, wired, her cheeks flushed with adrenaline.
And she had power. Real power, the kind that could bend reality with a whisper.
The kind that terrified and fascinated him in equal measure.
She was the most dangerous person he’d ever met.
I’m in so much trouble.
“What?!” Luna asked, catching him staring.
“Nothing.” He opened the door for her because some habits were older than the Void. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
About how I’d burn that whole building down if it meant keeping you safe . . . but I’d apparently also betray you if it meant getting to Burke first.
“About how we’re definitely going to need better fake names,” he said. “Kyle Gordon is embarrassing.”
She laughed, and just like that, the weight on him lifted, just the tiniest bit. They walked out into the afternoon sun, into the noise of SoHo, into whatever came next.