Melting the Ice King

ad the cal

once

th notes and alerts. Board reviews. M&A negotiations. Private

-fifteen minutes before, five minutes before, live-now signals. She'd built in buffers for tr

ld now. To anticipate Xavier Kane'

Unseen. Effici

chaos before, but

as his

s the gate

o sit outside the office of the man who'd

seen h

him s

him u

anything about how

d her close that night in Rome, but some

morning without her voice

d glass of his office door wi

nged. A meet

Xavi

: 2:

n: Boar

: Asset

and Marcus. Bring

reet

igna

the c

didn't

her black dress, slid on her b

ked. Flagged. Annotated. She w

d her dress, and g

droom was a palace

elve men sat around it in tailored armor-CFOs, regional heads, one se

ed up when Xa

dn't

e gravity an

wo steps behind, her heels

asked, slid his pen toward his right hand, and ret

't look

he fe

ment his breath s

nce was a

he kn

eting

Risk matrices. Asset leverage. Eu

ft unsaid, what Xavier would care about. She watched which fingers drummed, who

s Cl

rough the room like

dn't s

orward, calm

he said. "Explain

before anyone else

sultant recommended restructuring under EBO regulation. T

frowned. "We haven't

ut the savings project 4.8% against projected loss

us stood and applauded her, he sat down imm

ong

d," someon

didn'

n't

id, "Co

her position behind

she'd

teste

he pa

ing ende

as he stood. Didn't

Marcus as they walked down the

ced the change in the environm

e, he held the door open,

is back to her, as though col

ered Zurich

in you

cle

atten

with weight. The air between them was thick

as h

erous habit,"

d her hea

n't forget th

loser. One st

pretend

dn't

ith w

ped tow

ed just i

iviane," he said. "One nigh

did you sa

w tigh

e I wan

d," she

did

once, low

my bos

ow until I s

d n

pped c

could see the flecks

his throat wh

w what the hell

eath h

ld've wa

ve shut

moved faster t

do anything. Just s

fire

yes b

g you go. That'

they stood there, no

er and one

mselves against the fire t