Chapter Fourteen: Mystery Man

The auctioneer’s gavel cracked like thunder.

“Sold—five hundred and fifty million dollars to Ms. Amara Voss.”

Applause detonated through the armory. Flashbulbs exploded, white stars strobing across the marble.

Amara lowered her paddle with deliberate grace, the thrum in her chest a private drumline. Kaylee’s quiet exhale reached her ear like a prayer.

Across the aisle, Ethan Cade didn’t flinch. He merely adjusted his cuff links, a flicker of muscle in his jaw the only betrayal. Sienna’s amber eyes glittered with the delight of someone watching two predators test each other’s teeth.

Ethan rose first. His stride was unhurried, perfectly measured, and the crowd made room as if the marble itself obeyed him. He stopped in front of Amara and extended a hand.

“Impressive,” he said, voice all velvet and smoke. “Congratulations, Ms. Voss. Hudson Apex is in formidable hands.”

The mock-respect in his tone brushed against her like a knife’s flat side. His palm was warm, his grip steady—just a little too steady.

“Thank you, Mr. Cade.” She matched his pressure, smile diamond-sharp. “Competition sharpens the bid.”

Sienna’s laughter chimed like glassware. “Well fought,” she purred, slipping her arm through Ethan’s. “California won’t know what hit it.”

Kaylee edged closer, her clipboard angled like a shield. “It's ready, ma’am,” she murmured, but her eyes never left Ethan.

Amara didn't know what Kaylee was talking about but she was glad she had an out from the both of them. It was going to be exhausting putting up this facade for the next few months.

She excused herself and went to go to pay for the bid she won.

"Damien is going to flip. Five hundred and fifty million dollars." Kaylee said with a grin.

" He did say to do anything to win the bid." Amara gave her a small smrk. 

" I'll arrange the security details. Don't stray please. "

" Yes ma'am." 

Reporters swarmed. Questions hissed from every direction. Who was Amara Voss? How had she leapt half a billion without blinking? Was this a Geneva power move or something darker?

Ethan and Sienna withdrew at last, the crowd folding behind them. But Amara felt his gaze drag across her shoulders as he walked away, a silent promise that tonight was only the opening move.

--------------

The champagne tide surged again. Investors, developers, and opportunists orbited Amara in widening circles. Hands offered cards, voices offered alliances. Kaylee stayed welded to her side, intercepting the worst of the vultures.

“That man is still watching you,” Kaylee said under her breath.

“I’d be disappointed if he weren’t,” Amara replied, scanning the glittering room. “Let him wonder.”

She accepted another handshake, another too-eager compliment. Cameras kept flashing. Headlines were already writing themselves: Mystery Heiress Outbids Cade Dynasty. Exactly the kind of noise Damien Rhys wanted for her.

A sudden jolt against her shoulder interrupted the stream of congratulations. A man in a midnight suit stumbled into her path—too precise to be an accident.

“Forgive me,” he said, a flicker of a smile cutting across his face before he melted into the throng.

She lifted a perfectly arched brow.

A waiter appeared almost instantly, tray balanced like a halo of crystal flutes. Without breaking stride he set a folded slip of paper on the edge of her champagne glass. The motion was seamless; no one else seemed to notice.

Kaylee’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t like that.”

Neither did Amara. She palmed the note, unfolding it with the casual grace of someone checking a bill.

>"congratulations on winning the bid. I have a feeling we'd get along just fine." 

No signature. No crest. Just a single line in precise, unfamiliar handwriting.

Her heartbeat spiked. She slipped the paper into her clutch and forced a neutral smile for the investors still hovering.

Kaylee touched her arm lightly. “We should move.”

“Not yet,” Amara murmured. “If someone wants to rattle me, they’ll have to try harder.”

But the words hummed beneath her skin, low and electric.

She had an idea of who it might be. The person texting her from an unknown number. 

Bold of him to reveal himself to me this evening...

Makes me wonder who he was and how he knew me and if he knew me as Elara Monroe.

-----------------

Outside, the night pressed cold and sharp against the glass doors. Somewhere beyond the skyline, the Cade estate would be alight with strategy, Sienna and Ethan dissecting every second of the evening, plotting their next countermove.

Amara turned toward the exit, Kaylee and bodyguards shadowing her like a second heartbeat. Cameras flared one last time.

The black car waited at the curb, but Amara’s thoughts stayed inside the armory, with the faceless man in the midnight suit and the note that burned in her clutch.

Get along just fine 

The sentence lingered, heavier than the Hudson wind.

And from the corner of her eye, in the dark reflection of the glass, a silhouette watched her step into the night.