I wasn’t sure what was worse. Alone with the four-legged rats I could hear scurrying in the walls, or worried about what the masked, two-legged variety might do when the door opened. I pretended to be asleep when they came in, so they didn’t bother me. Usually, unless it was to make me say something on camera or take one of their stupid photos, they left me alone. The only time I had been hurt was when I tried to get away from them and fell in the struggle, landing on my face, and again on my knees when I tripped. Bentley had lost it when he saw the marks. His tirade about a blanket was frightening, and one of the men had knocked over the camera which stopped the recording.Still, it had worked, and shortly after, one of them had tossed an old, dirty blanket at me. I unfolded it and sat on it as protection from the cold, stone floor, and pulled it over my shoulders to try to ward off the never-ending chill. I had buried my head in my hands and tried not to cry. It was a little later w

“I feel shaky, but I’d like to go downstairs.”I stood, sliding my arms under her legs, picking her up. “I’ll take you.”She trembled in my arms, her head falling to my shoulder. “Are you cold?”“No. I’m . . . tired.”“You can eat, and we’ll go to bed. We all will. Everyone needs to sleep.”“Can I stay with you?”I hated hearing her sound vulnerable. She was always so strong.“Always.”We descended the stairs and joined our friends. I sat beside her, encouraging her to eat the scrambled eggs and toast Andrew had made. The rest of us ate the sandwiches. For the first time since everything started, I was hungry and wolfed down the food in front of me. I noticed it was the same for Maddox and Aiden. We cleared the enormous pile in minutes.I tensed when Cami looked up and asked Emmy. “Did you fight?”I started to object, but Emmy placed her hand on my arm. “I tried.” She sighed. “When I realized what was going on, I prepared myself. I knew the car would stop and they would have to open t

“He’s waiting for you.”Aiden scoffed, the sound low in his throat. “I bet the asshole is,” he muttered, following me into Greg’s office.Greg was at his desk, his usual self. Not a hair out of place, suit pressed, white shirt starched, and tie perfectly knotted. His face was clear, with no worry lines or frown. For the first time, I noticed his eyes. Emmy’s brown eyes were warm and lit from within, whereas his were flat, dark, cold—void of expression. How had I not noticed that until now?He wasn’t even remotely concerned about the woman he thought was still chained up in a deserted warehouse. He’d lost no sleep over her welfare. All he cared about was the piece of land he was so desperate to get his hands on. I wanted to grab the tie and tighten it around his neck until he couldn’t breathe, but Aiden’s presence kept me calm.“Ah, Bentley. You’re later than I expected.”I sat across from him, and Aiden stood close.I had to force the words out of my throat. “Rough night. Late start.

BentleyThere were so many voices around me. Police, paramedics, Aiden—all of them talking, gesturing, the movement constant. My head ached, my swollen hand throbbed, and I was still in shock from what happened. After Greg shot himself, his office door flew open, and it was the sound of Mrs. Johnson’s screams that brought me back to reality. Aiden had taken charge of the situation, immediately calling 911 for an ambulance, pushing her out of the office, and returning to shove me out of the way and into a chair across the room.Disoriented, I looked up at him, running a hand through my hair, then staring in confusion at the smear of blood I could see on my palm.“Bent,” he urged. “Look at me.”I met his gaze. “I need you to calm down. The police are on their way up, and there is going to be a lot of questions we are going to have to answer. I need you to relax.”It took me a minute to realize the odd noise I could hear was my gasps for air. Images swam through my head. Greg holding the

“He deserved them. Especially after he stepped up on the Townsview building. It was his contacts that got us the ‘in’ we needed.”“For which you paid him handsomely, added in a bonus, and sent him on a cruise with his second wife. Now read the bottom line of that email.”“I offered him a spot in the company—again.”“You offered him a spot three times over the course of the past six years. You even offered him his own department. He had free rein.”“That’s not what he wanted. He wanted a partnership.”Aiden barked out a laugh. “Bentley, how bad is your freaking memory? You have never simply offered a partnership—to anyone. You hired Maddox and me. You didn’t make us a partner for over a year. You bloody well know you would have done the same with Greg. He turned down your offers. All of them.”Maddox added in his thoughts. “You did try, Bent. You invited him on several trips. The one he agreed to go on was a disaster, and he was the one who told you not to bother with another invite.”