Elena's hand stayed on the door frame. The brass was cool under her fingers, grounding her in the low hum of the club beyond—the bass thrumming through the floor, the distant murmur of the auction crowd. Here, in the pocket of quiet Sebastian's office, all she could hear was her own heartbeat.

Veya didn't move. Her hand stayed on the safe, the small metal pick frozen mid-turn. She looked at Elena the way a cat looks at a dog that's wandered into its alley—sizing up, not at all scared.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Veya was kneeling in front of the wall safe, one hand holding a narrow pick against the lock while the other steadied herself against the cabinet beneath it. The picture frame that normally concealed the safe hung open beside her. Elena's gaze moved from the tools in Veya's hand to the open frame and then back to her face.

The surprise that crossed Veya's features lasted barely a heartbeat. Her eyes widened, her hand froze, and then the expression disappeared. She lowered the pick slowly, as though any sudden movement might make the situation worse.

"Elena."

Elena took a step backward.

"Wait." She rose carefully to her feet, keeping her hands where Elena could see them. She didn't move toward her or try to block the doorway. Instead, she stayed beside the safe, giving Elena space while maintaining the calm expression that seemed almost impossible considering she'd just been caught breaking into Sebastian's office.

"You weren't supposed to be here," Veya said.

Elena stared at her, then at the tools in her hand. "What the hell are you doing?"

Veya's gaze flicked briefly toward the safe.

"You're stealing from him!"

"No." Veya's answer came immediately. She lowered the pick and slipped it into her jacket pocket. "I promise you, Elena, I'm not stealing anything from Sebastian."

"Then why are you trying to open his safe?"

Veya hesitated.

It was barely a pause, but Elena caught it. Whatever answer Veya had, she wasn't ready to give it.

Elena shifted to turn toward the hallway.

"Elena, wait."

She stopped, but didn't turn around. Behind her, Veya took a slow breath.

“Please don’t rush off to report me. I promise you I’m not trying to steal anything.”

Elena glanced over her shoulder. “Then explain.”

“It’s not that simple.”

There was something different in Veya's voice now. Still calm, but more careful. She did not attempt to escape; she was just trying to keep her talking.

Elena studied her, not seeing a single sign of aggression from her. "Why should I trust you?"

"Honestly." Veya's mouth tightened into the faintest smile. "You shouldn't. You have no reason to."

That answer caught Elena off guard.

Veya leaned back against the desk, keeping her distance. "But you should at least hear me out."

Elena remained in the doorway, one hand still near her clutch. Every instinct told her to leave, find Sebastian or even Victor, and tell someone what she'd seen. Yet something about Veya's composure made her hesitate. There was something about the scene that didn't feel right. Veya wasn't defensive or threatening. If anything, she seemed more worried than guilty.

"What are you looking for?" Elena asked.

Veya's expression changed. For a moment, she seemed to weigh whether she could trust Elena with the answer. Her eyes dropped to the safe, then lifted again, meeting Elena's gaze.

"I’m not after his money." Veya's voice was flat. “The last time I went for riches, it bit me in the ass.” She tapped the pick against the lock, the small metallic click carrying through the quiet office. "I just need information that’s locked in here."

Elena stared at her. Information. The word settled uneasily in her mind as pieces she'd been struggling to connect suddenly shifted into place. Veya hadn't come for money, jewelry, or anything that could be sold. She had gone straight for Sebastian's safe, looking for something hidden behind a lock. Something important enough to risk being caught for. Elena felt a slow chill move through her as she realized she might not be the only person in this room looking for answers.

Her eyes narrowed. "Eros."

Veya froze. The pick stopped against the lock, and the calm expression she'd been carefully maintaining slipped for the briefest moment. Her eyes lifted to Elena's, searching her face as if trying to understand how she knew the name. Then her features settled again, but the silence between them had changed.

"You know what it is," Veya said.

"Yes." Elena stepped forward, one slow step into the office, letting the door swing shut behind her. The click of the latch felt louder than it should have. "I know it's a drug; I’m just trying to figure out how it’s tied to this club."

"Tied to this club." Veya laughed, a short, sharp sound with no humor in it. "That's a polite way of putting it."

"How would you put it?"

Veya finally moved, pulling the pick from the lock and sitting back on her heels. She looked up at Elena, and the calculation in her eyes had shifted—less guarded now, more curious. "I'd put it like this. Your friend Hart is running a lot of it through here. I just need to find out where it’s going."

"Where it’s going?"

Veya’s jaw tightened as she glanced toward the safe. “I had a friend. We grew up together, doing whatever work we could find to get by. One night she found a higher-paying job. The next day, she was gone.”

Elena's expression changed.

Veya looked back at her, the calmness in her voice beginning to give way to something more personal. "No one knows where she went, and no one is interested in finding out why for nobodies like us." Her fingers tightened around the lock pick. "Alaric is sure she was pulled into something bigger. Human trafficking."

Elena's stomach tightened.

Veya held her gaze. "That's what I'm trying to find out. Where they took her, who's moving them, and whether Eros has anything to do with it."

"Human trafficking," Elena repeated quietly.

The pieces were beginning to fit together, but one question remained. If Veya was looking for her missing friend and believed Eros was connected to what had happened to her, then Sebastian's safe had to contain something she needed. Elena's gaze shifted toward the open frame and the lock Veya had been working on.

"Are you sure what you need is in there?" she asked.

"Sebastian is the largest Eros dealer in the Underworld." Her voice dropped as she glanced toward the safe. Her expression tightened before she looked back at Elena. "This should be the most likely place to get answers. That's why I need to get into—"

The door swung open, and Sebastian Hart stepped into the office, his hazel eyes immediately finding Elena.

“Elena—I wasn’t sure where you went. How did you—”

He stopped mid-sentence as his gaze shifted past her.

Veya stood near the wall, motionless beside the open picture frame. For a moment, Sebastian simply stared, as though his mind were struggling to make sense of what he was seeing.

Then his expression changed.

“Veya…” The name came out flat. Hard. A door slamming shut.

Veya's eyes flicked toward the window. Before anyone could stop her, she took a step in that direction.

"Don't," Sebastian said. He set the glass down on a side table with a click that sounded louder than it should have. “The window doesn't open,” he said. “It's bulletproof.”

Veya's gaze lingered on the glass for another moment.

“There is nowhere for you to go.”

He started forward, and there was nothing warm about him now — the charm stripped away, leaving something colder underneath. Elena saw his hands curl into fists at his sides.

“You have some nerve,” Sebastian said, his voice low and controlled. “Breaking into my office? After everything—”

“Sebastian!”

The voice came from the doorway.

Alaric Orleth stepped into the office, his expression tense as his eyes moved from Veya to the open wall safe. Then to Sebastian.

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

He crossed the room and placed himself between Sebastian and Veya, one hand lifting slightly as though to keep him back.

Sebastian's jaw tightened.

“Get out, Orleth!”

“We asked you for the information.”

Sebastian's eyes narrowed. “You asked me for the information, and I told you no. That doesn't give you the right to break into my safe.”

"This is a last resort," Alaric said. "We tried working with you. You refused." His voice remained calm, carrying that quiet weight Elena had noticed at the auction—the voice of a man used to being listened to. "We’re looking for—"

Sebastian's jaw tightened. "I don't care what she's looking for. She's trying to break into my—"

"Stop!" Elena's voice cut through the room, sharper than she'd intended. Everyone turned to look at her.

She stepped forward, putting herself between Sebastian and the others, facing him directly. Her heart was pounding, but her voice came out steady.

"Everyone needs to stop arguing. Right now."

Sebastian stared at her. "Elena, this doesn't concern you. You should go back to the auction."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"You don't understand what's happening here."

"Then explain it to me."

He opened his mouth, closed it. His eyes flicked to Alaric, to Veya, back to her. The anger was still there, but something else was creeping in — a calculation, a weighing of options.

"This isn't something you're involved in," he said finally.

Elena's expression hardened. “That's where you're wrong. You, Victor, Veya, Alaric, and Thorn have all brought me into this whether you intended to or not. I'm already in the middle of it, and I'm not walking away until I understand what the hell is going on."

The silence stretched. Somewhere deeper in the building, a sudden roar of applause rose through the walls, followed by distant cheers and the muffled crack of the auctioneer's gavel. Another piece had just sold.

"She's looking for information about Eros," Elena continued. "And I think you know something about it."

The words somehow landed like a grenade. Sebastian's face went still. "How do you know about Eros?" Sebastian asked.

Elena held his gaze. The question hung between them, and she could feel the weight of it—the name she'd just spoken landing in the room like a stone in still water.

"I was drugged with it," she said.

The silence that followed was absolute. Sebastian's face went through three expressions in the span of a heartbeat—disbelief, then anger, then something that looked almost like guilt. Alaric's hand, still raised between Sebastian and Veya, lowered slowly to his side.

"You were—" Sebastian started.

"Drugged. Yes." Elena's voice stayed steady, though her hands had found each other, fingers laced tightly together. "I woke up confused and disoriented. Liam told me someone had drugged me. Somehow, they put it in my sheets. But I don't know who did it. I still don't. I’ve been left in the dark."

She let the words settle.

"Now I know I'm done being in the dark about it."

Sebastian's jaw worked. He glanced at Alaric, then at Veya, then back to Elena. "Elena—"

"So I'll ask you again." She took a step closer, and the distance between them closed to just a few feet. "What do you know about Eros?"

Sebastian stared at her for a long moment. Somewhere in the club beyond, the auction crowd erupted in another round of applause, muffled and distant. He seemed to hear it, seemed to remember where he was, what he was supposed to be doing tonight.

"You should sit down," he said.

"I'm fine standing."

"Humor me."

He moved to the desk, pulled out the chair behind it, and gestured to the one across from him. Elena didn't move. Alaric and Veya remained where they were, watching the exchange like spectators at a tennis match.

"I'm not going to sit until you tell me what I need to know," Elena said.

Sebastian let out a breath. He ran a hand through his light brown hair, and for the first time since she'd met him, he looked tired. Not the practiced exhaustion of a host who'd been charming guests all night—something real underneath.

"Eros isn't just any random drug," he said.

"Then tell me what it is."

"It's a drug created by the Thorns."

“I already know it’s created by the Thorns. Liam told me himself. What I don’t understand is why?

"Thorn Pharmaceuticals. The legitimate arm." Sebastian leaned back against the desk, crossing his arms. "Years ago, they developed it as a replacement for the drugs flooding the streets. Something body-safe. Something that wouldn't kill people the way cut heroin, fentanyl, and the other synthetic drugs flooding the streets were."

"A replacement drug?"

"Yes. A cleaner one. No lethal additives. No overdose risk. They wanted to push the dangerous stuff out of the market and replace it with something that wouldn't leave bodies in the streets."

Elena's mind was racing. "That's what the Amor research was about. They wanted to replace it with a safer option."

Sebastian's eyebrows rose. "Amor?" Sebastian studied her for a moment, something shifting in his expression. "You know more than I thought. Yes, it was made to replace Amor. Amor was lining up bodies all across the nation."

Elena's expression tightened. “So Eros was meant to stop that from happening.”

"The problem," he said slowly, "wasn't the drug itself. It was what people realized they could use it for. Once it got into the wrong hands, traffickers started using it on people. It could be given without killing them, without leaving them barely conscious. They could keep someone compliant and still have them functional enough to move, work, or be sold."

Veya stepped forward before Sebastian could say anything else. "That's why we're here."

Alaric glanced at her, but she kept her eyes on Elena.

"My friend disappeared a few weeks ago," Veya said. Her voice had lost some of its earlier edge. "We found out she was being moved through people connected to the trade. We think they used the drug on her."

Her fingers curled at her sides.

Elena watched her for a moment, the pieces slowly falling into place. Veya hadn't broken into the safe for money. She'd been looking for something that might lead her to her friend. But that only raised another question.

“If the drug had started as something legitimate, how had it ended up in the hands of traffickers?”

"Because legitimate and illegitimate aren't always as separate as people think. There are forces at play you don’t want to know about."

“Stop telling me what I don’t want to know. Is this about the Underworld?”

At the mention of the name, both Alaric and Sebastian stiffened; only Veya remained unfazed.

“So you are all familiar with it, she continued.

“They aren’t just familiar with it, Elena; they are it.” Veya blurts out from the back of the room where she still stood waiting.

“Veya!” Alaric says, both he and Sebastian giving her a hard look.

“What?” She says nonchalantly. “She already seems to know too much; better she knows what she’s getting involved in.”

Sebastian gives a sigh and turns to face Elena. “Elena.” He starts letting the name linger. “I promise you. It's dangerous for everyone involved. And once you know about it, you become involved and tied to it whether you want to be or not.”

Elena thought for a moment. “So if you, you, and somehow you,” Elena looked at Sebastian, then Alaric, then to Veya. “Are all apart and knowing of the underworld. That means Liam is too?” She finished with a question, looking back to Sebastian.

Sebastian stayed quiet, none of them answering her.

“That tells me all I need to know.” If Liam is involved in this, I need to be too. Elena thought to herself.

Elena looked between them, her expression hardening. “So here's what's going to happen.” She looked at Sebastian and Alaric. “You two are going to tell me what the Underworld is, why Eros is moving through it, and she is going to get the information she needs.”

Her gaze shifted to Veya.

Elena straightened. “I'm not going to stand here and watch someone who came here looking for help walk away empty-handed.”

“You don't get to make those decisions in my club, Elena.” Sebastian started to protest.

Elena held his gaze. “Would you rather I go out there and start asking questions?”

Sebastian stared at her for a long moment before letting out a heavy sigh. “You're going to get us all killed…”

He pointed toward the open chair.

“Sit. You're going to want to be comfortable for this. There's a lot to cover, and this time, I'm not telling you everything while you stand.”