straight from Milan. It was an atmosphere engineered to intimidate anyone who walked through the doors, reminding them con

tile liquidity injections, and hostile liquidation assets. To the room full of high-priced corporate sharks and ruthless lawyers, I was merely Elena, the quiet, dutiful assistant taking meticulous meeting minutes. T

tle, strip-mine, and swallow whole was not just a

rling Globa

ire life trying to escape, now sitting neatly on a digital spreads

attention to thes

every single head in the room snap instantly toward us. He was seated at the absolute head of the long glass table, leaning back comfortably with his long legs crossed, on

e polished mahogany table right into his direct line of sight. "I was just noting that Sterling Global's liquid assets are significantly higher than the initial projections sugges

silence fell over t

ancient alien language. An assistant did not interrupt high-level strategy meetings, let

er his strikingly handsome features. He picked up the printed sheet, his sharp gaze scanning my handwritten no

ulian asked softly, the temperature in the room seemingly dropping ten degrees. "That

. I had talked too much, driven entirely by my desperate, protective inst

ne buzzed violently in the tailored pocket of my blazer. I glanced down inv

ne inside Vance Global is leaking our financial bluep

tact with me for a single second. He walked slowly around the long table with the silent, lethal grace of a wolf closing in on a co

as his fingers brushed the edge of my blazer right where my phone was buzzing incessantly. "And I a