Page 72 of Cold Ignition

It had nothing to do with the room itself, but with them.

Rangi was already there, leaning back in a chair like he owned the place, boots hooked on the edge of the console, grinning at something Drew had just said. Alexios stood to one side, posture relaxed but alert, gaze moving across the data Luca had pulled up—taking it in, cataloging, already working angles.

And when Keanu walked in—neither of them missed it.

Rangi’s grin shifted, sharper now. “Look who finally made it.”

Keanu snorted. “You’ve been here what, all of five seconds?”

“Late is late, tāku manawa,” Rangi said.

Alexios didn’t look away from the screen. “He is not late, lover. You were early.”

Rangi shot him a look. “You’re both insufferable.”

“Efficient,” Alexios corrected.

Keanu huffed a laugh before he could stop it.

And this was their thing. The ease of it.

The way it settled around them like it had always been there—like the shift from last night hadn’t broken anything, hadn’t complicated it beyond repair.

It had clarified it. He moved in beside them without thinking about it, because there wasn’t anything to hesitate over. Not anymore.

Rangi’s hand brushed his side as he shifted—casual, grounding. Alexios’s gaze flicked to him briefly, assessing, confirming with a soft smile—then away again. Keanu leaned his hip against the console, crossing his arms loosely as he looked at the screens.

“Tell me we’ve got something,” he said.

Luca didn’t look up. “We always have something.”

“Something that’s useful?”

“That depends on your definition of useful.”

Victor, posted near the back wall, didn’t bother hiding his faint smirk. Drew muttered something about “geeks and their definitions,” earning himself a quiet, unimpressed look from Luca that didn’t even require words.

“Alright,” Kael said, stepping in from the far side, attention already shifting the room. “Let’s focus.”

Just like that, the air changed.

Rangi dropped his boots, Alexios straightened slightly, and Keanu pushed off the console, attention sharpening.

“The handler Keanu met last night has already reached out,” Kael continued. “He says he’s got a job.”

Rangi snorted. “They always do.”

Kael’s gaze didn’t shift. “This one pays enough that we’re listening.”

Rangi’s grin returned. “Now you’ve got my attention.”

Alexios glanced at Keanu. “High payouts usually indicate high risk.”

“Yeah,” Keanu said. “That sounds about right.”

Luca’s fingers moved again, pulling the incoming data packet onto the main screen. Lines of intel unfolded—routes, names, partial identifiers, financial flows bleeding through the edges.

“Give me a second,” Luca said. “Let me see what they’re actually offering.”