LOGINRAVEN'S POVMy mother in law was taken away, and within twenty minutes, the penthouse became filled. Police. Federal agents. Crime scene investigators at work taking photographs of blood spatter and marking bullet casings. All of them swarming through my house like it was a crime scene instead of the place where I raised my kids.Because it was now a crime scene. Marcus’s blood hadn’t yet dried on the hardwood floor near the panic room. Bullet holes marked the walls. Shell casings gleamed beneath the emergency lights, still not switched back to normal power.I curled up on the nursery floor with all four babies at once, refusing to let anyone take one away from me. Not the doctors who were hoping to give them a once-over. Not the social worker who showed up asking questions about the safety of children. Not even when Kade tried to give me a reprieve."I need to hold them." My voice came out harsh. “I’ve got to know they are safe.”"They are safe." Kade crouched beside my chair. "You s
KADE'S POVI walked in the dark with Vincent behind me. We had been breaching through the service entrance using emergency access codes that only I knew existed. Codes my mother most certainly did not possess.The power cut, it was Vincent what put it out. From his surveillance setup, he had remote access to the building systems. All those years of watching had left him with nothing but control.I acted on memory and training. Knew this penthouse by heart in the darkness. Countless times practiced clearing it blind.There was a soundless thud: the first armed man fell. Vincent led him with an efficiency born of decades of working in the field. The second tried to lift up his weapon, but I was quicker. Took him out and onto the floor before he made a sound.That left only my mother.I could hear her breathing. Listen to her moving in the dark: trying to orient herself. Trying to understand what had gone wrong.The backup generator activated. Emergency lights bathed the hallway in dim r
RAVEN'S POVI was frozen in the hallway holding both babies while Kade’s mom pointed a gun at us. The woman who had sat with me in companionable silence. The woman whose shaking hands had held my children I thought could hardly function. The woman who had been deceiving us all for fifteen years."Put the babies down." Her voice was steady. Clear. Nothing like the mute invalid I thought I knew. “Put them down very gently, and step away from the panic room door.”“No.” The word escaped my mouth before it could be thought.She tightened her finger on the trigger. "I was not asking."Marcus kept his weapon drawn but began calculating angles. The two men next to her had stronger positions. Better lines of fire. If he fired, they would return fire and we were all in the kill zone."Why are you doing this?" I asked. Trying to buy time. Trying to understand. "These are your grandchildren."“They are proof of my son’s weakness.” She moved closer. Each step deliberate and controlled. “Kade was
KADE'S POVVincent sped over to one of his computer screens, hands dancing skillfully with learned precision. "You need to see this. Right now."I crossed to where he stood. A surveillance video of my penthouse played on the screen. Multiple camera angles switching automatically. All of them from jobs I had never known existed. Cameras I had not installed.“Why do you have access to my security system?” I demanded. “They’re private feeds on encrypted channels.”“Because I’ve been watching you for thirty years. Vincent didn’t take his eyes off the screen. “I had to be sure you were safe. Which meant having eyes everywhere you called home. Every safe house. Every office. Everywhere."The video was of the living area of the penthouse. Raven walking around with Celine in her arms. Marcus arriving and sitting down. Normal security protocols being followed. Guards at their stations.Then the alarms started. Red lights flashing. People moving with trained urgency."Someone breached your peri
RAVEN'S POVThree hours went by with no word from Kade other than that short phone call saying he was safe. Three hours that seemed to drag like three days. I paced the penthouse with Celine in my arms for three hours while Ethan slept blissfully in his bassinet completely oblivious that just now his father learned that all his life was built on lies.I could not sit still. I could focus on nothing except the city lights outside the window and a phone in my pocket that would not ring. That image from the security footage kept coming back to my mind. That man in the car, waving that sign. Vincent Statham. Officially dead for thirty years. In family parlance, my uncle. Kade’s biological father, at least according to claims I had no way of verifying yet.Too many supposedlys. So many revelations piled upon each other, I couldn’t tell which was real anymore.Summer had gone an hour earlier to coordinate extra security sweeps of the building. Javier had sent a team to check perimeter defen
KADE'S POVAnd I sat behind the sedan next to a man who was supposed to be dead and tried to process what I was seeing.Vincent Statham seemed older than the photographs I had seen in Summer’s files. Gray hair when there had been brown. Deep lines shadowed his eyes and mouth. But his posture was straight. Military. And his eyes were sharp and cold and staring at me with an intensity that started every instinct I had screaming warnings."You should not be here." I said. I kept my hand on the door handle. “You’re dead you are supposed to be dead.’l”“I was going to do many things. His voice was rough. Decades of cigarettes and whiskey. "Dead. Retired. Forgotten. But here I am. And you need to listen to what I have to say.”"The sign said son." I looked at him directly. "Why would you call me that?""Because it is true." He took his time reaching into his jacket. Pulled out a folder. "I am your biological father. Not Dimitri. Not Arthur. Me."I grabbed the folder but have not opened it.
KADE'S POVAnd then Raven Statham, now Raven D'Angelo, came striding through those doors in a dress that turned her from a frightened baker into some kind of celestial entity. White lace clung to her form, while a flowing skirt and dark hair that cascaded in soft waves that caught the light made it
RAVEN'S POVThe door to my bedroom opened, and three women entered with garment bags and makeup cases."Good morning, Miss Statham." The elder of the two, a severe looking woman with her hair pulled back so tight it had to have been painful, smiled at me. “We’re here to get you ready for your weddi
KADE'S POVThe lights of the city zipped by my car windows, glazed over by dark tints as Marco navigated me through wide open roads. Now it was after nine, and my showdown with Raven Statham had left a bad taste in my mouth. Not regret. I didn't do regret. But something close to it.“Boss, you want
KADE'S POVI sat in the conference room, the only sound being that of my pen lightly thumping against the mahogany table. My eight underbosses surrounded me, perched and awaiting orders. They’d been waiting for twenty minutes as I spread surveillance photos across the table, and looked at them.Xav







