I push myself up from the floor, survey my kingdom of shoes. I should put them away. Get ready for work. Be practical and responsible and all the things I've trained myself to be.
Instead, I try on every pair.
The burgundy pumps fit like they were made for my feet. The gold sandals make my legs look a mile long. The black stilettosgive me the kind of posture that saysI own this room and everyone in it.
By the time I settle on my outfit, a simple sheath dress with the burgundy Louboutin, I feel different. Not because of the shoes, exactly. Because someone cared enough to give them to me. Because someone looked at my life and thought,I can make this better.
I grab my bag, check my reflection one last time, head for the door.
The subway is crowded and hot. The commute is the same slog it always is, but my feet don't hurt. My shoes are gorgeous. And somewhere across the city, a man who could have anything is choosing to think about me.
I push through the revolving doors of GVM, stride toward the elevators, ready for whatever the day throws at me.
Bring it on.
CHAPTER 15
THE NEAR MISS
KAIDEN
Maddox doesn't waste words.
Server room. Now.
I find him hunched over a terminal, face lit by the glow of multiple screens. The room is cold and humming, blue lights blinking in rhythmic patterns.
“Close the door,” he says without looking up.
I do. “What is it?”
He turns his screen toward me.
Wire transfers. Shell companies. A money trail that ends at Hammond Industries subsidiaries. Maddox knows I need to verify things myself before I believe a string of zeros and ones.
My jaw clenches when one name keeps surfacing. Dylan.
My personal assistant.
“How long?”
“Two months.”
“How did we miss this? We vet everyone.”
“We did. He was clean.” Maddox still doesn't look at me. “I run daily sweeps when we're under threat. Financials, communications, location data. Dylan was a ghost.”
“So how?—“
“They never went digital.” He pulls up a photo. A handwritten note, photographed against what looks like the inside of a trash bin. “Old school. Dead drops. Burner phones that never connected to wifi. I only found this because I sent someone to physically search his apartment after Ravenwood.”
My stomach turns. “Someone taught him how to hide from you.”
“Someone who knows exactly how I work.” Maddox's eyes meet mine. “That's a very short list, Kai.”
Whoever is behind this isn't just rich. They're smart. Smart enough to study Maddox's methods and build a system to circumvent them. Smart enough to turn my assistant into a weapon without leaving a digital trace.
“The money leads to Hammond,” I say. “My father.”
