Battl

hudded against th

n aside with violent force. His features were dark

ce cutting through the sterile roo

desert crash two years ag

I saw through the smoke. Paramedics and highway patrol told me he w

isease and couldn't endure the shock; Victoria was tangled in her family's syndicate audit and couldn't be dragged in. It was Alec

nto affection. Cold and detached as he was, he

here were genuine moments of warmth in the early days, but somewher

llen out of love; he had sim

led before me. I wasn't an obstacle in some long-standing romance. He

the clinic door, feeling n

but my engineering blueprints and my mother's legacy w

lled off his leather cut-Genevra's signature scent. A wave of nausea

ly through the windshield, his large hand resting heavily over the hard bulge in his inner coat pock

ad seen in the hospital corridor. Yet within seconds, that brief flicker of suspicion dissolved back into his familiar, impenetrable wall

suddenly reached across the cons

acelet was shoved roughly dow

k indifferently, looking

red his throat, trying to smooth the a

ewelry, a faint, bitter smile tu

never missed a single milestone or anniversary; the gifts always arrived on time. But

ne concern, he would have noticed the bandage aro

match to the emerald pendant hanging

e. He was simply check

sed the truck keys onto the dashboard, shrugging off his heavy coat and tossing i

ak door open-and fro

sprawled across the

se and dipping low, the hem hitched up past her thighs to

fingered the delicate lace trim of my robe. "I got soaked on the highway and had no spare cl

k, Alec's calm voic

on't mind. Go

phant glance and retreated in

e are reporters and Woodward enforcers watching her place down in the va

cussion.

ng up to the second-floor office,

ir

nother sixty secon

ffel bag from under the bed. I packed my encrypted drives, custom diag

portrait of my mother and me

oor, a loud, violent crash of shatteri