lse, Jase hurr

m before he could take another step. "You're the CEO of Bail

r a beat, eyes fixed on the dense, light

ing with disdain. "But what? With no money to her name,

e's face as a flicker of unc

could Rena

ad always circled back t

for her, no circ

, she would come

.

, a sedan tore through th

n window, tangling Rena's long hair into w

photograph, once ripped apart and

traight across Clara'

heel while her fingertips traced the r

se in her mind with brutal clarit

h a joint task force, moving through

side enemies, and Clara's sudden disappearance had forc

about where her mother might have go

to life, she saw Jase appear through

spent the rest of his money buying

e and assured, "Don't be afraid. Th

believed she had finally found a harbo

ude for love, she buried her real identity and became the perfect,

ical company, she quietly sent him an unpublished biopharmaceutical

build everything on that foundation, while he foo

s carried the weight of years-half a lifetime of relentl

d, what did i

ood there without a word, watching his family rip C

r laugh slipped

urd it

that household, only to realize she had been tending n

paid, there was nothing left tying h

would make sure none of

weathered sign by the roadside whipped past her window. "P

elf against the side of the car and exhaled de

iful sound made h

eo

y white kitten, filthy with mud, shive

a Lincoln came tearing toward it

the ground and lunged forward, sw

o her knees, curling protectively ar

air clung to her cheeks, and a sheen of col

ack bumper halted less th

econd later, her body would have

mooth out her ragged breathing, forcing

rise, a fierce stab tore through her ankle, and a low

had taken hold

he car door

s side, a tall m

rst, but as he stepped into the dim stree

had sculpted it with painstaking care and then

et eyes shadowed beneath sharp bone structure, while his skin held th

ard line that carried nothing but cold indifference and

of her, towering over her as h

he abruptly ex

nd suspended before her, but

stranger had never co

he man drew his brows toge

arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees, the

entire body go rigid. Almost immediately, she

tch her alarm too, wriggling restlessly as

his voice flat and icy as he said, "I