The camera operators were next. I found them during their smoke breaks behind the equipment trailers, trading complaints about producers and brutal shooting schedules. One cup of strong coffee bought me twenty minutes of venting—and a handful of useful details.
Production assistants were the best source of all. They were exhausted, underpaid, and desperate to complain.
Apparently, Jessica had been asking a lot of questions.
Security rotations. Arrival schedules. How many Coalition males were attending Fairy Tale Night. What time they would enter the ballroom.
Piece by piece the picture sharpened.
Jessica had known Derek was coming. She’d helped him get inside. The realization settled cold and solid in my stomach. That fucking bitch.
I was so focused on fitting those final pieces together as I walked back to the suite that I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me. Not until a voice drifted through the quiet hallway.
“Hello, Tori.”
That. Voice. I knew that voice. Ice shot down my spine.
I turned. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.
Derek stood a few feet away. Directly between me and the nearest exit.
For a moment my brain refused to accept what my eyes were seeing. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed softly, washing the corridor in pale, sterile brightness. Derek Sterling looked nothing like the immaculate billionaire who had once walked into boardrooms and owned every inch of the room.
His suit was wrinkled, the expensive fabric hanging crookedly from one shoulder. His tie had vanished. His dark hair—normally styled with obsessive precision—fell unevenly across his forehead as if he’d been dragging his hands through it for hours.
And his eyes.
They were bloodshot. Wild. The kind of wild that prickled along the back of my neck.
Desperate men were dangerous.
“You shouldn’t be here.” My voice came out steadier than I felt. Inside, fear coiled low in my stomach, tightening with every second that passed. “Security is looking for you. If they find you, you’ll be arrested.”
13
Tori
* * *
“Let them try.” He stepped closer.
Instinctively I backed up until my shoulders pressed against the wall. The cool surface grounded me for half a second before my pulse kicked harder.
“I have resources you can’t imagine,” Derek continued, voice rough, confidence bleeding through the edges of his desperation. “Connections. Power.”
“You have delusions of grandeur.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
His laugh echoed down the hallway. There was nothing amused about it. “You think you’re so smart?” His head tilted slightly as he studied me, eyes narrowing. “You think you’ve won?”
“I wasn’t trying to win anything. I just don’t want to be married to you.” My chin lifted before I even realized I’d done it. Pride stiffened my spine, overriding the fear. “I won’t.”
“Ah, but you are my wife.”
“Just let me go. Agree to the annulment. I know your lawyers have it.”
“No.”
“What do you want? I don’t understand. We were friends, Derek. We were never in love. Why are you holding on so tight?” Seriously? What was with this guy?
