Part 1
I’m Victoria Croft, Chief Security Strategist for Croft Global Shipping, and right now, I’m about to ruin my brother’s wedding to save our lives.
Inside the grand ballroom of Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, five hundred elite guests sat beneath crystal chandeliers. At the altar stood my brother Sebastian—billionaire CIO of our shipping empire—looking hopelessly in love with Seraphina Dubois. She...
Part 1
I’m Victoria Croft, senior threat analyst for my family’s global shipping firm in Manhattan, and right now, my brother’s million-dollar wedding is turning into a crime scene.
Five seconds ago, I delivered a resounding slap across the bride’s flawless cheek. White orchids scattered across the marble altar of St. Jude’s Cathedral as five hundred elite guests gasped in unison....
Part 2
The harsh rrrip of Velcro sounded louder than a gunshot in the dead silent trauma room. I held the stiff, blood-crusted fabric in my shaking fist for a fraction of a second before hurling it directly at Hastings’ perfectly polished black shoes. It hit the sterile white linoleum with a soft, heavy thud.
"There," I spat, my voice laced...
PART 2
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Blake laughed.
“Admiral, with respect, that could be anyone’s patch.”
Ward rose slowly. He was seventy, silver-haired, and normally controlled enough to make a room quiet without raising his voice. Now grief and anger sharpened every line of his face.
“My son’s initials are on the back.”
I stared at the patch. I had found it caught...
Part 2
I clutched my stomach, the iron skillet rattling against the floorboards as Margaret let out an exaggerated sigh from the adjacent dining room. “Really, Emma? Must you be so clumsy? The kids are hungry!” she called out.
I didn’t answer. I couldn't. I stumbled to the downstairs half-bath, locking the door behind me with trembling fingers. When I lifted...
PART 2
I woke on the kitchen floor with Walter holding a clean towel against my abdomen.
“Call an ambulance,” he ordered.
Ryan stood frozen with my phone in his hand.
I snatched it from him and called the surgical clinic myself. The nurse told me not to wait for an ambulance unless I became faint again. Walter drove me while Ryan remained...
Part 1
Bleach was burning through the raw skin of my knuckles as my future mother-in-law poured a fresh glass of Dom Pérignon directly onto my head.
"Scrub harder, Catherine," Victoria Caldwell hissed, her diamond rings catching the morning light inside the grand ballroom of Newport’s Rosecliffe Mansion. "You’re a penniless orphan marrying into Wall Street royalty. If you want our...
Part 1
My name is Catherine Pembroke, and five minutes ago, I was kneeling on the freezing marble floor of Newport’s grandest mansion, scrubbing industrial bleach into my chemical-burned hands.
“Scrub harder, you worthless orphan,” Victoria Caldwell sneered from her velvet armchair, sipping champagne as the toxic fumes burned my throat. “My son’s wedding floor needs to shine, and since you...
Part 2
I didn't turn around. I kept my fingers locked like a vice on the dying Ranger's carotid artery, feeling the frantic, weakening thrum of his pulse beneath my grip.
"Put the gun down, Marcus," I ordered, my voice cutting through the blaring klaxons. "If I move my hand, this kid bleeds out in exactly forty seconds. You shoot me,...
PART 2
The alarms were not for the storage rooms.
A special-operations convoy had overturned on a mountain access road, and the first casualties were already coming through the ambulance bay.
Colonel Hale released Tyler.
“Get Bennett out of here,” he ordered.
Then a medic shouted from the corridor, “We need every available provider!”
I pulled away from the escorting officer. “How many patients?”
“Seven. Two...
