Julian crossed the VIP lounge with the predatory grace of a wolf cornering its prey. The few other wealthy travelers in the room instinctively shrank back, sensing the sheer, violent gravity radiating from the billionaire.

Nora stood frozen by her leather chair, her mind calculating a dozen differ

The private elevator hummed as it shot upward, a sleek bullet of glass and steel ascending toward the eighty-fifth floor of the Croft Syndicate headquarters. The digital floor indicator ticked higher with agonizing slowness, but inside the cab, the air was crackling with lethal energy.

Nora Vance

Forty-eight hours later, the dust had finally settled over the city's art district.

Nora sat behind the massive mahogany desk in the Chairman's office, the late afternoon sun streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows and casting long, golden shadows across the room. The space was still sparse