sam

Intro Title: Neat, No Ice Samantha Reyes didn’t plan on tending bar forever. At twenty-five, her dream of joining law enforcement still clung to her like a childhood promise—faded but stubborn. But dreams don’t pay rent, and raising a five-year-old on tips and late shifts wasn’t exactly part of the plan either. Still, she managed. She always had. Ever since her mother raised her alone in a two-bedroom apartment with more bills than rooms, Sam learned how to survive. When Jake—Luna’s father—was killed during a corner store robbery gone wrong, Sam’s world hardened. Crime wasn’t just a problem. It was the problem. Now she works evenings at Glasshouse, a sleek bar just respectable enough to charge for top-shelf and just shady enough to attract quiet men with loud pasts. Among them is a regular known only to staff as “Mr. Grey.” Late 50s. Graying hair. Scarred hands. Always in the corner. Always bourbon, neat, no ice. Barely speaks. Always watches. Sam doesn’t know why he unsettles her. He’s polite. Tipping cash, no trouble. But something in his eyes—like he knows her. Like he’s memorizing her from a distance. What she doesn’t know is that “Mr. Grey” is watching the life he gave up. The daughter he left behind. Once the name behind a vast criminal empire, Gabriel Marquez disappeared to protect the woman he loved and the unborn child he never met. Now, old and haunted, he sits in silence night after night, clinging to a life he can never reclaim. And the closer Sam gets to chasing justice… The closer she comes to uncovering the truth about the man in the corner booth.