Alle Kapitel von Three Billionaire Alphas on Their Knees: Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 18

Seven in the morning. A dull vibration woke Darcy.She opened her eyes. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the St. Cross Bridge was still shrouded in lingering morning mist. The city not yet fully awake, the sky a pale gray blur.She reached for her phone, her fingers still sluggish with sleep, and the screen lit up with a notification from the Executive Cabinet:[Executive Special Authority Notice]To: Darcy Clark (Chief Risk Officer, Merger Task Force)Additional Designation: Acting Director of Crisis ControlSpecial Authority: High-level Judicial File Access & Emergency PowerEffective: ImmediatelyAt the very bottom of the document, a private message was attached. No sender name. Only that familiar cedar tree avatar she'd come to recognize over the past few days."If you want to challenge the Code, you'll need a title that lets you walk in and out of my office at wi

The red alert on her phone screen continued to pulse in steady, rhythmic flashes.Darcy stared at the line that read [Doorlock Compromised] . There was no panic in her eyes. Not a flicker. Instead, she pocketed the phone and reached for her bag on the desk, her movements calm and deliberate.Asher leaned against the doorframe, his tall frame blocking most of the exit. His fingertips tapped a lazy, irregular rhythm against the edge of the door, his dark gold eyes fixed on her from his full height. The casual pose did nothing to hide the predatory awareness coiled beneath his stillness."Door's been forced. Are you heading over to collect a body, or to deliver yourself as the main course?"Darcy stopped half a step in front of him, tilting her chin up to meet his gaze. Her amber eyes were cool and unhurried, completely unruffled by his presence."To see who took the bait."She tapped the side of her briefcase with one finger, her ton

Kingston's central hall. The towering glass dome fractured the remaining rain-light into cold, scattered flecks across the marble floor.Darcy stood at the center of the hall, the frigid air cutting across her skin. The cold sweat on her back had soaked through her shirt. The old wound deep in her left shoulder throbbed with a dull, persistent ache, as if tiny bolts of electricity were crackling through her bones."First question. Is Darcy Clark your birth name?"The Grand Elder's staff struck the stone floor, his voice landing like a hammer blow."Last night, the risk control gateway was nearly breached. Kingston's core data came within inches of being leaked. And yet, we've searched every archive on the continent. There is no record of the name 'Darcy Clark' anywhere. No birth registration. No family record. Nothing."The Grand Elder's gaze cut through the hall like a blade."A core officer with the highest risk control authority in Kingston, someone who could shut down the entire b

The elevator doors slid shut with a heavy thud in front of her.Darcy stood in the penthouse lobby, holding a heavy-duty access card that shimmered with a faint dark-gold luster. It was the highest-level clearance for Kingston's entire private estate, and the core commercial district beyond. The card was solid in her hand, cold against her palm, radiating the kind of authority that made lesser wolves step aside without thinking.Ten minutes ago, Asher had been urgently summoned to the security office for the post-hearing wartime sealing procedures. Before he left, he'd shoved the card into her palm without giving her a single chance to refuse."I don't like my employees dressing like that to work."His parting remark, a low, clipped statement that wasn't quite a complaint and wasn't quite an order, still echoed in her ears. There was no warmth in it, no explanation, just the absolute certainty of a man who expected his commands to be followed without ques