Before the Words

KAELEN'S POV

Friday morning.

He woke before five, as he always did. The run at four-thirty, back by five-thirty. The routine had been his since his early twenties, since the specific discipline of those years when running at predawn was the only hour that belonged entirely to him. The pack started at six. The enterprise at seven. The four-thirty run was his.

He came back to the penthouse at five-f