The matte-black SUV tore through the city streets, the rain outside mirroring the soaked, shivering occupants inside the cabin.

Clara sat in the backseat, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest, her teeth chattering as the adrenaline violently drained from her system. The emerald silk dress was

A cascade of green text scrolled rapidly across the laptop screen, followed by a series of high-resolution spreadsheets, banking documents, and PDF scans bursting into view.

"We're in," Victor breathed, leaning forward and resting his hands on the table on either side of the laptop.

Clara let ou

The drive to the Navy Yards was suffocatingly quiet, wrapped in the kind of heavy, electric tension that precedes a lightning strike.

Clara sat in the back of Victor’s armored SUV, watching the blurred city lights reflect in the rain-slicked window. The skyline of Manhattan—the very empire her gra