From Blood Bank To Billionaire's Obsession

Tom Ford cologne pierced through

s snapp

a suite at The Plaza. The silk sheets felt cold and foreign a

distant hum of traffic through soundproofed windows. Then the memories crashed back. Bridgette's s

someone had replaced her blood with molasses. But beneath that f

ini

gnize. A woman's hands showing her how to find a pulse point. A voice-calm, patient, ur

ushed herself upright. Her head pounded, but her ha

Her breathing slowed. Her muscles coiled. Her heart ra

he understood, with absolute certainty, that she was n

disgu

ice came fro

ted in a sneer of pure contempt. He aggressively adjusted the cuffs of his

you came from?" Ashley spat, his voice echoing in the luxurious room.

eady calculating. Distance to his throat: two point four feet. Domina

knowledge was there, as if it had been sleepin

d out roughly, his fingers digging into the de

nked

ugh the quiet suite. The strap of her dress gav

d was the

e her conscious thought e

wrist, her thumb pressing violently into the radial nerve pulse

pain. He tried to jerk his arm bac

inch. Her grip was

er body and rolled off the mattress. She landed on t

ing his arm backward until the should

or air, his fac

er knee upward in a brutal, precise strike. Th

Ashley's lungs

ollapsed to his knees on the floor, clutching his stomach.

at the elite Wall Street golden boy, he

rely replaced by raw, unadulterated terror. He couldn't understa

him, something else surfaced from the depths of her memory-imag

tte's smile, bright and poisonous, on th

ions in the dark. "If they ever come for you, if they ever try to use you, remember what I taught you. Your

icking her hand in disgust as if s

t up. The screen was cracked, but it was unlocked. She quickly opened the messaging app. A single sent text glared back at her:

flew across the

ad done this a thousand times-accessing the hotel's network, planting a backdoor, setting a trigger. The knowledge flowe

device and turned

carpet as she walked toward the flo

nd stared at

een in mirrors her whole life. But her eyes were different. There was something behind

the same-thin, depleted, scarred from years of medical procedu

she realized. Helena put it t

lk gown and tied a tight, practical

at Ashley, who was still groani

raight to the he

d pulled it open. The thick doo

y. The thick wool carpet swallo

conces made her narrow her eyes as

caught sight of a Renaissance-er

e locked onto the canvas.

aight through her. And for a moment, Alanis saw another face superimposed over i

le

young to remember. The woman who, according to the Co

na hadn't been trash. She had been something else entirely. Someth

re would be time for answers later.

y silence of the h

er boots stomping against the carpet e

ad. Her fingers twitched, r