Clara stared at the man standing in her doorway, her mind spinning as the pieces violently snapped together.

The masquerade. The intense questioning about the forgery. The way he had watched her from the balcony, a predator tracking a doe. It hadn't been a chance encounter. He had been hunting her

The air in the subterranean level of the estate always tasted of saltpeter and damp earth, but tonight, it was heavy with the sharp, metallic tang of fresh blood.

Julian Thorne stood in the center of the concrete room, slowly peeling off his ruined suit jacket. The fine Italian wool was speckled w

Clara Vance stood by the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of her gilded cage, staring out at the unforgiving wilderness that surrounded the estate. The morning sun was bright, casting long, sharp shadows across the dense pine trees and the jagged cliffside.

It had been hours since the explosion. H