a private gala for the board of directors. The event had been expanded at the last minute-a strategic move by the legal team to pressure the board into approving the capital inj

, her father's instructions reduced to a terse tex

r of the opulent ballroom, suffoc

eneath the thick layers of the suit, the compression b

to react violently. A sharp, stinging rash spread beneath the f

through a side door, escaping the suffocating crowd, then bypassed the main restrooms, knowing they were heavily trafficked, and instead slipped

king the dark, manicured gardens. There were no

air. She leaned heavily against the col

ug her nails under the edge of the silicone scar

flamed skin. She let out a so

trapping the heat against her skul

oked her fingers under the tight mesh of the restrictive hairnet, sliding it backward. Freed from the suffocating tensio

Karmen closed her eyes, tilting her face up to the moonlight. Stripped of the gro

l Calderon was

oard members was grating on his nerves.

nd strode toward the back stairs, heading

ets. He reached the heavy wooden door and pushed

tep onto the ba

ling, bathed in the ethere

blew softly in the wind, contrasting sharply with the

th caught i

ofile. The delicate curve of her neck, the sharp line of her jaw

y hours ago in the close, charged silence of his study. But the context was wrong. The scar was gone. The short, severe hair was replaced by a cascade of moonlight-pale silk. His mi

ular thud against his ribs. A prima

had wandered away from the part

hoe scraped against a loose pie

ut Karmen spun around

couldn't see his face. She only saw a massive,

he threw her hands up, despera

he was about to fall over the low railing

wrapping like an iron vic

arl felt the delicate, fragile bones of her wrist, so small h

r forward, i

e. The way her gaze held a flicker of desperate defiance even now. He had seen those eyes before-just hours ago, across his desk, behind the grotesque mask of Kem Bartlett. The realization hit

but with the unyielding pressure of a man who ha

estion was no longer one of introduction. It was an interrogation. He a

th absolute, paralyzing terror. It was Ea

trying to break his gri

ed downward, trac

on the stone flo

it, a piece of flesh-colored silicone, smeared with

e faint red imprint where the prosthetic had sat, the subtle tension in her jaw that he had mistaken f

balcony turned