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He got up from the bar stool and walked away, leaving the words hanging in the air like smoke.

They plagued me.For eight more days.

Every mile I rode, every night I lay awake staring at the ceiling, every time my phone buzzed and it wasn’t her—I heard Tower’s voice.You had a taste of something you wanted.

He was right.

I had sworn I’d never go back to that city.Never put myself in a position where the ghosts could find me again.DC held too many memories.Too much blood.Too many versions of me I’d buried on purpose.

But it also held her.And apparently that was a temptation I couldn’t resist.

A few days later, I woke before dawn with the decision already made.No debate.No overthinking.Pure adrenaline, need, and reaction.

I pulled on my jeans, my boots, my jacket.Checked the bike like I always did—muscle memory, steady hands.The engine roared to life under me, familiar and grounding.

As I rolled out onto the open road, the sky just starting to lighten, I felt something shift in my chest.

Fear, maybe.

Hope, definitely.

I didn’t know if she would answer the door.I didn’t know if she would tell me to leave.I didn’t know if I was about to make a fool of myself at an age where men liked to pretend they were past that.I didn’t know much of anything.But I knew one thing with absolute clarity.

For her, it was worth it.

Worth the miles.Worth the risk.Worth breaking a promise I had made to myself a long time ago.

The city rose on the horizon hours later, steel and stone and memories.

I didn’t slow.

Not this time.

Her building looked different in daylight.

Cleaner.Sharper.Less forgiving.

I killed the engine at the curb and sat there for a second longer than necessary, hands resting on the grips, helmet still on.The city hummed around me—sirens somewhere far off, traffic breathing in fits and starts, the low, constant pulse of a place that never truly slept.

I swore I would never come back here.

I pulled off the helmet.

That vow felt flimsy now.Like something made in a different lifetime by a man who hadn’t known yet what it felt like to wake up empty and realize the only thing he could still taste was her mouth.

I took the stairs two at a time.Didn’t give myself time to think, to back out.Her door stared back at me like it already knew why I was there.

I knocked.

Once.

Firm.

Footsteps.A pause.Locks disengaging.Then the door opened.

Shock flared across her face so fast she didn’t have time to hide it.

“Dante?”she breathed.