I sucked in a sharp breath. “What did you say?”“I saw Hector Morgado in the footage but no Lucius Sagan. Then I checked the list of guests, and Lucius Sagan wasn't there… but Matt Wallace was. I found it odd, and since I don't believe in coincidences—”“I need a floor and room number.” I was certain that my tone carried at least some of the rage coiling inside me.Robert swallowed. “I've just sent you the floor, the suite number, and the map with the shortest way to get there from the parking lot.”I ended the call and started running toward the elevators. Grayson followed me, catching up as the car came down. “Do you even know what you're doing?” he asked as the door closed and the car started moving up.“Whatever I have to,” I strained.“What if you find her there and realize she wasn't there against her will?”My hand was on his throat a heartbeat later. “Think twice before you insinuate something like that again!” My fingers curled, putting pressure on his windpipe.“I'm… sorry,”

I saw two other Chinese with guns in the hallway as I exited the elevator on the ground floor. They followed me through the main hall and watched me get into the cab. My heart kept hammering against my chest, and the breaths I drew were too shallow to provide enough oxygen. The first deep breath I took was when I was more than ten blocks away from the Ritz. I debated whether or not I should go straight to the police, but I stopped after admitting the simplest fact: I had no proof. Even if I had my blood examined, the result would only prove that I had a drug in my system, nothing more. It must have been that waiter who had given me champagne when I'd been too broken to realize what I was drinking. The problem was that I couldn't even remember the waiter's face. “Shit,” I muttered as a thousand thoughts rushed through my head. “Is everything OK?” the taxi driver asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I shook my head. “No… a lot of things are not OK.” His brows knitted, and a

ALEXFour hours earlierI must have been in a nightmare, although I couldn't remember falling asleep. Knowing that I had to leave Sarah in Lucius's apartment nearly killed me. This helplessness was unbearable. I had been sitting in my car outside the hotel for hours, praying that Lucius had been true to his word and let Sarah go as soon as she woke up. But I hadn't seen her leave the building until four in the morning…Then I got a call from my father, who told me that Grandma had just been taken to the hospital. I kept asking myself how that was possible. When I talked to Natasha Collins, she made it sound like Grandma's health was in good condition, but the doctors at the hospital claimed something completely different. The great Eleonor Ravenford was in a coma, one she might never wake up from. If I felt helpless sitting and waiting for Sarah to leave the hotel, sitting and waiting by Grandma's bed felt like absolute torture.I was holding Grandma's hand. It was cold and limp. The

ALEXThe next few days were rough and full of stress. With all the enemies lurking around, I knew that Sarah and Liam were no longer safe living in the residence. Sarah temporarily moved to Joy, and Liam spent a day with me before joining Sarah to stay in Joy's apartment. I wished the both of them could just move to my penthouse, but I needed to take care of the Duncan problem first. The only positive piece of news was that Grandma was no longer in critical condition. Now every one of us waited for her to wake up...After finding Dylan Sullivan dead in his apartment, I chose to be more direct with the few shareholders I had contacted. Once I told them what happened to a few of them, they became more cautious and a hundred percent more alive. Unfortunately, that didn't make them more eager to sell their shares to me. They all feared that as soon as Gregory Duncan found them useless, he would expose their illegal deeds. Luckily for me, a few of them had a lot more skeletons in their clo

The next thirty minutes turned into a partially beautiful and partially awkward blend of cries and laughter. I stared at the great Philip Corbin—my former boss—and it felt as if I had just seen him for the first time. Suddenly, he stopped being this powerful and mysterious billionaire and turned into... Dad.OK, the “Dad” word had yet to pass my throat. We established that I would call him Philip for now. I was still at the beginning of processing how that knowledge was going to change my life. At first, I thought I was coping quite well… until Philip's voice turned deadly serious.“Unfortunately, being my daughter will also put you in grave danger,” he said, and uncontrollable laughter broke through my throat.“Hate to break it to you, but it doesn't sound like something new to me.” And those words couldn't be more true or more bitter.He drew a ragged breath. “Someone might have used you to get to Ravenford before, but this is going to be completely different. The people that are af