Mutual Disarmament

VANCE’S POV

“I’m not revealing his location while you’re holding a trigger that could end my reign.”

“And I’m not surrendering my only leverage on the word of a man who is illegally detaining my chosen mate.”

We stare at each other. Two men at an impasse built from identical materials — love and fear and the absolute unwillingness to blink first.

In another life, I think I might have liked Car