“Now,” he said, “I make certain no one else in this building is a threat to her. And then I go back to her side, where I belong.”
He turned to address the stunned security personnel, his voice carrying across the floor with the authority of an alpha addressing his pack.
“My name is Rykan. I am Miss Duvain’s new head of security. You will follow my orders without question or hesitation. Anyone who has a problem with that arrangement is welcome to leave now. Anyone who stays will be expected to earn my trust through competence and loyalty.”
No one moved.
“Good.” He allowed himself a small, predatory smile. “Then let’s get to work.”
CHAPTER 24
The numbers blurred together, columns of figures swimming before Ember’s eyes until she had to press her fingertips against her temples to push back the throbbing ache building behind them. She’d been staring at financial reports for hours now, cross-referencing board minutes with quarterly statements, tracing the subtle web of changes her aunt had woven through the company’s infrastructure.
Clever,she thought grimly.So damnably clever.
The modifications were almost invisible—a slight adjustment to approval thresholds here, a minor rewording of authorization protocols there. Each change was small enough to escape notice, reasonable enough to justify if questioned. But taken together, they formed a pattern as clear as a trail of breadcrumbs leading directly to Marina’s door.
Three years ago, the board had voted to allow the CEO to approve expenditures up to fifty thousand credits without board oversight. A sensible efficiency measure, proposed by her father himself. But six months later, a quiet amendment hadraised that threshold to seventy-five thousand. Then a hundred thousand. Then two hundred.
And the board never questioned it because Marina was the one presenting the amendments, and they trusted her.
She pulled up another document—personnel records this time. The pattern repeated itself. Key positions filled by Marina’s allies. Experienced managers transferred to remote facilities or pushed into early retirement. Security protocols adjusted to give Marina access to systems that should have been restricted to her father only.
The escape pod’s authorization code surfaced in her memory. Marina’s digital signature, embedded in the command that had doomed her ship.
She’s been planning this for years. Long before Father died. Maybe even before he got sick.
The thought sent ice through her veins. Had Marina known about her father’s illness before anyone else? Had she perhaps even…
No.She shook her head sharply, rejecting the darker suspicion before it could fully form. Her father had been old, his health fragile from years of overwork and worry. There was no evidence that Marina had done anything to hasten his decline.
Just everything to profit from it.
She turned back to the documents, forcing herself to focus despite the pounding in her skull. The board meeting was tomorrow. She needed to understand every move Marina had made, every piece she’d positioned on the board. She needed to be ready.
The door slid open and she looked up as Rykan stepped through. He was no longer wearing his travel clothes but he’d changed into the severe black uniform of Duvain security, the dark fabric clinging to his broad shoulders and emphasizing the predatory grace of his movements. His expression was… interesting. A muscle twitched at the corner of his jaw, but there was a gleam in his golden eyes that suggested satisfaction rather than pure anger.
“You look like you’ve been hunting,” she observed.
“In a manner of speaking.” He crossed to where she sat, his gaze sweeping over the scattered documents and glowing screens that surrounded her. “Vartel is gone. Three of his key people as well—all of them had direct communication channels to your aunt that bypassed official security protocols.”
“You fired them?”
“I gave them the opportunity to leave peacefully.” The corner of his mouth quirked upward. “They were wise enough to take it.”
She could imagine exactly what that opportunity had looked like. The thought should probably have disturbed her more than it did. Instead, she felt only relief—relief that someone was finally taking action, finally treating the threat to her safety with the seriousness it deserved.
“What about the rest of the security staff?”
“Most of them seem competent enough. Demoralized, perhaps—Vartel wasn’t a leader who inspired loyalty.” He settled into the chair across from her, his large frame making the elegant furniture look almost delicate by comparison. “I’ve reassigned patrol routes and adjusted camera coverage to eliminate theworst of the blind spots. There’s still much to be done, but the immediate vulnerabilities have been addressed.”
“Thank you.”
He waved off her gratitude. “What have you found?”
She gestured at the documents surrounding her. “Exactly what Tomas warned me about. Marina has been consolidating power for years, using her position on the board to make incremental changes that shifted authority in her direction. None of it was illegal—she was too careful for that—but the cumulative effect…”
“She’s positioned herself as the real power behind the throne.”
