Both Austin and Marielle drank their water quickly, relishing how it quenched their thirst even though they knew Vincent was in much worse shape. Marielle imagined his tongue swelling with thirst and his stomach rolling with hunger, although he probably felt them only when there was a small break in the merciless torture being thrust …

Something flickered. An explosion on television startled Marielle awake, even though she hadn’t been aware of falling asleep. She turned; Austin was awake and staring at the love scene on screen. Sweaty, naked bodies were intertwined. She stood, then went down to the ground on her back and tucked her toes under the lip of …

When Marielle was awakened by a heavy-handed knock on the door, she briefly panicked because she didn’t recognize the room. Then she laughed at herself because the knock hadn’t even been on her door. “Right,” she said with a yawn and a glance around the room that she currently occupied. “I’m at Valorant.” Then she …

Liam, Sabine, Austin, Vincent, and Marielle all sat in the meeting room toward the front of the large oval table. Marielle bit a hangnail nervously, while Sabine leaned against a single finger, her face pallid. Austin was yawning and trying to cover it with the back of his wrist. Marielle wondered how late he had …

Austin gestured to the couch upon arrival at his office, and for a moment, Marielle was concerned that he’d try to sit there with her, although why that concerned her, she wasn’t certain. It wasn’t as if they’d never sat together before.  He didn’t. Instead, he went to his desk and sat, folding his fingers …