"I'm fine,
my doctor."
Head of the south side operation. Six years of loyalty. One night of betrayal. Cold under pressure — unexpectedly tender when no one's watching.
"If you tear it open
one more time,
I'm not fixing
it again."
ER doctor. Was thirty minutes from a quiet dinner. Saves Victor's life, then can't explain why he keeps coming back.
"This is not
your world.
You are not
this person."
Investigative journalist. Two years on the Moretti file. When the truth matters, she doesn't hesitate.
"You know
what that means."
Loyal in the truest sense. Sees everything. Says very little. When he speaks, it lands.
"You're getting
too hard
to control."
The man who pulled the trigger. His resentment was structural, not personal. That makes it worse.
"Nothing belongs
to you.
It belongs to us."
The Organization's enigmatic leader, feared even by those who serve her.
"I bite strangers.
I tolerate Victor."
Victor's black panther. Loyal to no one else.
When Victor Moretti is shot by his own right-hand man, he pulls a stranger into a world Eli was never meant to know. What begins as a desperate surgery in a villa bedroom becomes something neither man can name — and neither can walk away from.
Victor Moretti hasn't said please in twenty years. The night Richard's bullet changes everything, he says it to a stranger. And the stranger — against every reasonable instinct — stays.
THE SOUND OF STAYING
WHEN YOU SHOULD LEAVE.
Listen to the official album from Too Close To Leave, composed by Anna Brooks aka MØTH.
Open on SpotifyTHE TASTE OF TROUBLE.
A fictional bubblegum brand from Too Close To Leave. Sweet on the surface, dangerous by association.
