Chapter 1

Thalia Renner counted three men in her father's office before she counted the exits.

Two by the door. One behind the desk, already opening drawers that weren't his to open. Her father sat frozen in his own chair, watching a stranger go through forty years of his life like it was nothing.

"Touch that filing cabinet again," she said, "and I start screaming loud enough for the whole floor to hear it."

The man near the door smiled and reached for her arm instead. She pulled free hard enough to stumble, hard enough that he laughed.

Nobody in this room was afraid of her. That was about to change.

The man behind the desk slammed a drawer shut, empty-handed, and turned to face them.

"Where are they," he said. "The originals. Your father knows exactly what I mean."

Her father didn't answer. That silence told her more than any answer could — he wasn't confused, he wasn't scared of being wrong. He was scared of being *found out*.

"What do you actually want from him?" Thalia asked.

"Money," he said. "And the papers your father's been sitting on for twenty years. He knows which ones."

One of them moved toward her father's chair. Not fast — slow enough to be worse.

"Mr. Renner," he said, crouching to her father's eye level like he was talking to a child. "Where are they?"

Her father's mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Thalia stepped between them before she decided to.

"I have them," she said. "Not him. Me."

It wasn't true. She had no idea what papers they meant, let alone where they were, but the man straightened, studying her now instead of her father, and for one second the room's attention shifted entirely onto her — which was exactly what she wanted, and exactly what she hadn't thought past.

"You?" He almost laughed. "And what exactly do you have?"

Thalia didn't answer fast enough. That gap — half a second, maybe less — was enough for him to see the lie underneath it. His face changed, amusement sliding into something colder.

"Careful," he said. "Lying to me is worse than owing me."

He reached out and closed his hand around her wrist, not hard, not yet — testing to see if she'd pull away first. Behind her, her father finally found his voice.

"Don't touch her—"

The man's grip tightened before he could finish the sentence.

His thumb pressed into the soft part of her wrist, right over the pulse, like he wanted her to feel him counting it.

"Your heart's going fast for someone who has what I need," he said quietly.

Thalia held his eyes and said nothing, because anything she said now would be another lie stacked on the last one, and lies didn't hold up under a grip like this.

Behind them, one of the other men laughed — low, almost bored, like this happened often enough to be routine. That was the part that scared her most. Not the hand on her wrist. The fact that none of them looked worried about consequences.

Nobody in that building was coming to stop this.

"Let's try this again," he said, voice dropping lower, quieter — which was worse than if he'd shouted. "Where. Is it."

Thalia's silence answered for her. His grip shifted from her wrist to her arm, hauling her half a step closer, off balance, so she had to catch herself against the desk to stay upright.

Behind her, her father lunged out of the chair — and one of the other men shoved him back down so hard the chair legs screeched against the floor. Her father didn't get up again. He just sat there, breathing fast, useless, watching his daughter get pulled across his own office by a man who'd stopped pretending to be patient.

The man's hand slid from her wrist up to her arm, gripping tighter, angling her slightly so she had no choice but to face him fully.

"Your father's smart enough to know when to stay down," he said. "You should learn that too."

Something flickered in the man's expression — not quite anger, closer to interest, like she'd said something he didn't expect from someone he'd already decided was harmless.

Behind them, her father made a small, broken sound that wasn't quite words.

The man's grip didn't loosen.

"Careful," the man said, tilting his head. "Scared men don't get killed for being scared. Scared men who let their daughters run their mouths, though—"

"Then it's my mouth," Thalia cut in. "Not his. Whatever you're about to threaten, threaten me with it."

The room went quieter than it had been all morning. Even the man near the door stopped watching her father and turned his attention fully onto her, like she'd just made herself the more interesting problem in the room.

Her captor's grip tightened once, sharp, testing.

"That," he said slowly, "was either very brave or very stupid."

He didn't answer his own question. Instead he let go of her arm — not gently, more like he'd decided she wasn't worth holding onto yet — and reached for something at his belt.

Thalia's whole body went cold before she even saw what it was.

"Let's see how brave you are in a minute," he said.

Her father made a sound like he was trying to stand again, and this time no one bothered shoving him back down. He just froze halfway out of the chair, staring at the man's hand, at whatever was about to come out from under his jacket.

Thalia didn't move. Couldn't.

His hand stopped at his belt — not drawing yet, just resting there, like he wanted her to sit with the waiting.

"You want to test me," he said, "or you want to start talking?"

Thalia's pulse was loud enough she could hear it in her own ears. She glanced at her father — pale, frozen, no help coming from him — and back at the man in front of her, and understood for the first time that no one in this room was going to save her unless she found a way to save herself.

Her mouth opened. No words came.

The man's hand moved.

His hand closed around the grip at his belt — not lifting it yet, just closing around it, slow enough to be its own kind of threat.

Thalia's mind screamed at her to say something, anything, but the words wouldn't form. Her father's breathing had gone ragged behind her, one long broken exhale that sounded like giving up.

"Time's up," the man said quietly.

He started to pull it free.

The door didn't creak. It didn't slam. It opened the way doors open for people who've never once had to knock — slow, certain, final.

The man's hand stopped moving.

Every man in that room went still at once, like something had walked in that outranked fear itself.

Thalia didn't turn around. She didn't need to.