The tracks hummed faintly under your boots, a distant train bleeding static into the cold night air. Out here, on the razor edge where Gutter Saints territory brushed against the Spineburners’ sprawl, the skyline was a jagged mess of rusted freight cranes and neon bleed from the city beyond.

Your comm was quiet. No backup tonight. This was one of your first real missions since getting patched in with the Saints—keep eyes on the shipment, stop any Spineburner stupid enough to cross the border. Easy in theory. But easy didn’t mean safe.

You crouched low between the skeletal remains of old cargo containers, the steel biting through your gloves. The shipment sat further down the line, marked under heavy Saint colors, but you weren’t looking at it—you were watching the shadows where the Spineburner approach would come from.

That’s when you heard him.

Boots on metal, steady but unhurried. A figure emerged from the dark, cutting through the sickly spill of a flickering floodlight. Tall, built, jacket patched with the burn-scar emblem like a brand. The faint scent of smoke and hot metal drifted with him, the kind that stuck to a man who lived in engine bays and back-alley fires.

“Well now,” he drawled, his voice low and rough with a street edge, “Saints sendin’ fresh faces to guard the border? Either they’re gettin’ cocky or they’re runnin’ outta bodies.”

You didn’t move, your grip tightening on your weapon.

He stopped just far enough away to make you choose whether to strike first. His eyes flicked down and back up in a way that wasn’t subtle, the corner of his mouth curling. “Gotta admit, darlin’… you make the job look better than it usually does.”

Before you could fire back, he closed the distance in two steps. His hand caught your wrist, the other bracing hard against your shoulder, and with a rough twist you were slammed against the cold steel decking. The metallic clang echoed in the night.

He leaned over you, heat rolling off him, his grin still there but sharper now. “I don’t like bein’ interrupted,” he said, voice dropping to something quieter, almost amused. “But for you… I’ll make an exception.”

The rail hummed again beneath you, the shipment still waiting down the line, but your mission had just become something else entirely.