Declan called the bodyguard detail the moment Charlotte's footsteps faded down the hallway. The head of the team picked up immediately. "Sir." "Georgina Harper," Declan said. "Maximum coverage starting right now. I want your best people on her, not the standard rotation. Around the clock with no gaps at all." He kept his voice level. "If she leaves the house for any reason, even just to the end of the street, I want to know the moment she moves and I want full coverage on her the entire time." "Understood. I'll redeploy immediately." "Good." He ended the call and dialed Sophie. She picked up on the second ring. "Hey. Everything okay?" "I need you to stay close to Georgina for the next few days," he said. "As close as you can manage. I can't explain everything right now but there's a potential threat and I'd feel better knowing you're with her." A short pause. "How serious?" "Serious enough that I'm not taking chances," Declan said. "Can you do it?" "Already thinking about wha

Declan's phone started going off at seven in the morning. He was already awake, sitting at the desk in his hotel suite with The Physician's manual open in front of him, working through the early morning cultivation practice he had built into his routine since returning from the Northern Border. He looked at the screen. Victoria. He answered. "It's out," she said. Her voice was controlled but he could hear something underneath it. "The oversight committee released the official statement twenty minutes ago. Full investigation into Vanguard Corporation's bidding practices on the urban development project. They named names." "How is it being covered?" Declan asked. "Every major outlet has it as their lead story," Victoria said. "Television, online, print. It's everywhere simultaneously." A brief pause. "Vanguard's stock opened down thirty percent and it's still falling. Last I checked it was past forty." Declan closed the manual. "And Barry Pierce's response?" "He issued a statement

Declan looked at her for a long moment after she finished speaking.Laura stood in front of his desk with her hands clasped together, waiting. She had said what she came to say and now she had nothing left to do but stand there and find out what it cost her.He thought about Valentine's Day. The storage room door opening. Carlos and Laura together, not even startled, like they had simply been waiting for him to find out. He thought about how long it had been going on before that night and how many times Laura had looked him in the eye during that period. He thought about the banquet, her laughing in Carlos's face as she walked past him on Nathan's arm, the particular cruelty of that laugh.She had not stumbled into any of those moments. She had chosen each one.He also looked at what was standing in front of him now. The clothes that hadn't been properly washed. The weight that had come off her face in a way that wasn't healthy. The way she was holding herself, like someone waiting fo

Georgina saw him coming before he reached her. Her face changed immediately, the stiffness dropping away, and she smiled in the uncomplicated way she smiled when she wasn't thinking about how she looked doing it. "You made it," she said. "I said I would," Declan said. He looked at her. "You look wonderful." She glanced down at herself briefly and then back up, colour rising in her cheeks. "Sophie picked the dress," she said. "I almost didn't come tonight. I kept telling myself I didn't belong in a room like this." "Why not?" Declan said. "Because everyone here is—" She gestured vaguely at the room around them, the tuxedos and diamonds and old money moving in every direction. "You know what I mean." "I know what you mean," Declan said. "And I'm telling you it's wrong. Your worth has nothing to do with how much anyone in this room has in their bank account." He held her gaze. "You belong here as much as any of them. More than most of them, honestly." She looked at him for a mome

Declan called Nathan back immediately.Nathan picked up on the third ring, which told him the man was sitting somewhere comfortable waiting for it."I need more time," Declan said. "Twenty-four hours isn't enough to coordinate a withdrawal with the government oversight committee. That's not how those processes work and you know it. And five hundred million dollars isn't something that moves in a single day.""That sounds like a personal problem," Nathan said."I'm not refusing," Declan said carefully. "I'm telling you practically what's possible. Give me forty-eight hours minimum."A pause. Then Nathan laughed, short and sharp. "You have twelve hours," he said. "Not twenty-four. Twelve. And if I don't have confirmation of your agreement by then the situation changes significantly."The line went dead.Declan put the phone in his pocket and looked at Holt. "Twelve hours.""Understood," Holt said. He was already typing on his phone.The ballroom was still disordered. Hotel security was