Kestrel Energy · Chicago

Meet the Characters

Three voices. One napkin. No spoilers.

A hand holding a phone with a late-night text conversation, a red thread bracelet on the wrist.

Project manager · the rule-keeper (mostly)

Sloane Becker

Sloane needs this job to stick. It's her third in four years, and she has ninety days to prove she's someone who stays. Then she spills coffee on the man in the elevator, and he turns out to be her new boss. She's quick, stubborn and funny when she's nervous, and she agrees to the rules on the napkin with her eyes open.

A dark corner office at night: a desk lamp, a closed notebook and a pen, the city skyline glowing in the window.

Executive · the man everyone fears

Graham Whitlock

Brilliant. Controlled. And still married to a wife who refuses to let him go. Graham tells Sloane he can't touch her. He even tells her why. Then he asks what she wants. He made the rules.

Two wine glasses on black marble beside a black card tied with a red thread, a candle burning, the city lights behind the window.

The new friend

Margot

The fearless new friend who listens like no one ever has. Sloane tells her everything: the hotel, the times, all of it. Margot listens very carefully. She has her reasons. (That's all we're saying. The rest is in the book.)

The rules

Not at the office.
No nights.
No feelings.

And one word, Wabash, that ends everything. No questions asked.

Read the blurb

The setting

Kestrel Energy is a fictional company in a very real-feeling Chicago: elevator banks, glass towers, a river that turns black and gold after dark. Every person, company and hotel in the book is invented.

Images on this page are AI-generated and show no real people. AI transparency