s drunken scheming still clawed at the inside of his skull, a corrosive poison seeping into old wounds. By the time he

rove the sole of his dress shoe against the lock plate. The doo

y just closed around her small silk wristlet-a delicate champagne-colored pouch threaded with a thin gold chain she always looped around her wrist for safekee

its hinges, Claire spun around, her hazel

, his white dress shirt half-untucked. The carefully constructed mask of cold indifference he had worn at the altar had shattered. In i

single step backward, her hand tightening around the s

wristlet-his large fingers clamping around her delicate bones with the unforgiving bite of a steel tra

ress. "What are you doing?" She kept her voice steady,

ast she couldn't see. He began to drag her toward the door. Her heels skidded uselessly against the thick carpet, and her free hand-th

weight backward. She refused to be hauled like a possession. Every ounce of her quiet rebellion

teel cable down his neck. He simply adjusted his grip and kept moving, pullin

felt obscenely civilized. He shoved her inside ahead of him. Claire stumbled against the mirrored back wall, her shoulder h

nd pressed the button for the top-floor

upright. She was breathing hard, her carefully pinned veil no

stop

match any physical exertion. A thin, unnatural sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead and trickled down his temples. H

er and more cautious. She stopped pulling at her wrist, her gaze narrowing as

ul murmur. She made no sudden moves. The wristlet's chain cl

second, his burning eyes met hers in

ss. The impact knocked the air from her lungs. The wristlet was crushed betwe

emory of Arthur's greedy voice had triggered a catastrophic cascade in his PTSD-riddled brain. The phantom smell of gasoline clogged his nostrils. His mother's screams ricocheted through his skull. The

ed by something wounded and feral and terrifyingly lost. Her own fear sharpened in

o the penthouse's dark,

-ceiling windows that overlooked a glittering, indifferent Manhattan. The wristlet's chain rattled against her wrist with

oor and pulled her inside. Then, wi

e. It sailed through the air and landed with a soft thump on the polished surface of the nightstand, its contents undisturbed. She scrambled backward instantly, her spine collid

first time, she felt true, ice-co

ing, agonizing terror of his past had completely consumed him now. Every ounce of calculated, Wall Street control had been stripped away, leaving only a

you think you know," she said, her voice lo

pond, a loud, obnoxious

t resting on the nightstand. The screen glowed through the delicate

name. The greedy, plotting voice from the balcony flooded his mind all o

vice onto the hardwood floor and brought the heel of his leather shoe down with brutal, shattering force

over the edge of the bed. Her carefully constructed calm fi

heaved with every labored breath. He sneered, and the expression was a grotesque mask of the cold, cont

cold. "What are y

h his heavy, muscular frame. The heat rolling off him was suffocating. She could smell the lingering traces of ci

frame. She twisted beneath him, her manicured nails raking across the broad muscle of his shoulder and leavi

e hand that had been so deliberately cold at the altar, and slammed them down onto the mattress above her head. A thin, red welt circled her left wrist where

ad and forced his

he tasted the sharp, metallic bloom of copper as her bottom lip split open. A small, broken sound escaped her th

reach. And so she went still, her body rigid, her eyes squeezed shut, her mind retreating to a quiet place where she whispered her mother's name like a prayer. Mama. I

still blocked out the city lights. The penthouse was

opened h

d a pounding, nauseating headache that pulsed behind his eyes. He lay still for a long moment, st

d, barely-there sound. Breathin

is head on

entirely in the white sheet, the fabric pulled up over her shoulders like a shield. Her back was to him. But he could see the violent tremor running through

w tightened. He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling a momentary, suffocating wave of self-disgust. He had lost control. He had become the very thing

users and pulled them on. His gaze drifted to the floor, where the shat

d into the inner casing. He picked up the broken pieces with a strange,

rapid, encrypted command to the Pierce Group's elite cybersecurity division. Within five minutes, his team ha

with data. Text messa

e unread texts from Arthur Salinas, timest

the pla

as to be

mission. The trust

. Don't sc

en or Rosa p

icker of guilt that had stirred in his chest didn't just vanish-it froze over, crystallizing into so

cheme designed to bleed his family's legacy dry. And schemes like t

cted glow of the city lights, Houston's expression was a mask of