Chapter 34

• Author’s POV
• The sleek black Maybach idles silently against the curb of the modest residential street. Once Rosalina’s slender, determined figure fully disappears through the security doors of the apartment complex, Vesper doesn't immediately order the car to move.
• Instead, he steps out into the cool evening air. The heavy door closes with a muted, expensive thud. He stands under the dim, flickering amber of a streetlamp, his long dark gray overcoat shifting slightly in the autumn breeze. With a fluid, practiced motion, he pulls a cigarette from a silver pack hidden in his pocket and sparks it to life. The flame of his lighter catches the sharp angles of his jawline before the tip flares into a brilliant, angry crimson in the gathering evening gloom.