The Vanguard PR Anniversary Gala was still a week away, but the preliminary battleground had already been set at the apex of the Manhattan skyline.

The annual Global Communications Summit mixer was being held at a rooftop venue encased entirely in glass, offering a panoramic view of the glittering

Elias Sterling’s corner office was a fortress of glass, steel, and discretion. Perched on the forty-second floor of a midtown skyscraper, it was the kind of room where fortunes were quietly dismantled and legally erased.

Vivienne sat across from his mahogany desk, a crystal tumbler of sparkling wa

Julian Thorne was a man who operated on the fuel of his own perceived brilliance. For the past forty-eight hours, ever since he had successfully funneled a quarter of a million dollars out of Vanguard PR and into the Vanguard Nexus shell account, he had been practically floating. He walked with a re