El Tigre's men moved fast. Professional. Efficient. Before Blake could react, they had weapons drawn. Surrounded him. Emma and the kids were in the hotel room fifty yards away. Safe for now. But Blake was alone. Unarmed. Trapped."Come," El Tigre said. Wasn't a request. Was a command. "We take your family somewhere private. Somewhere we can work without interruption."Blake's mind raced. Options. Escape routes. Ways to fight. Found nothing. Five armed cartel soldiers. Blake had a knife in his pocket. Useless against guns. Fighting meant death. Immediate death."Let my family go. This is between you and me."El Tigre laughed. "No, Señor Sterling. Alexander Sterling was very specific. Kill your family first. Make you watch. Then kill you. Those were his instructions. And we follow instructions when paid $100 million."They went to the hotel. El Tigre's men entered Blake's room. Emma saw them. Grabbed the children. Tried to run. No escape. Guns pointed at Grace's head. At James. At Sarah

Cassidy Monroe was dead. Bleeding out on the asylum floor. And with her, the location of Grace Sterling.Blake searched Cassidy's body. Pockets. Phone. Anything that might give a clue. Found nothing. Just a burner phone with no saved contacts. No messages. No recent calls. Cassidy had been careful. Had planned for this possibility. Had ensured if she died, Grace died too.Blake and Emma tore through the asylum. Every room. Every corridor. Every basement cell and rooftop access. Screaming Grace's name. Listening for responses. Finding nothing. Just empty rooms and echoing silence and the growing certainty that Grace wasn't here.Six hours had passed since Cassidy took the children from the cartel compound. Six hours Grace had been missing. Could be anywhere. Texas was massive. Cassidy could have stashed Grace within a hundred-mile radius. Could have hired someone to hold her. Could have left her in any of a thousand abandoned buildings that dotted the desert.Blake was running out of t

Blake stared at Marcus Kane. At the recording device. At the truth he didn't want to believe. "You're lying. Emma wouldn't betray me. She voted to stay with me. I heard her.""You heard what Alexander wanted you to hear." Kane set the device on the table between them. "Blake, Emma made a deal with Alexander three days before the family vote. She contacted him. She initiated it. She chose to turn you in.""Why? Why would she do that?""For the same reason you would. For the children. For their safety. For their future." Kane pulled out more recordings. Multiple files on the device. "Alexander promised Emma that if she turned you in, he'd leave the kids alone. No more hunting. No more threats. No more danger. They could live normal lives. All Emma had to do was give you up."Blake felt sick. "And she agreed.""She agreed. Made a deal. Worked with Alexander to manipulate everything. The family vote was theater. Emma knew you'd surrender if you thought she'd chosen to stay with you but th

Blake Sterling began his life sentence in Scheveningen Prison's maximum security wing. Cell block D. The most secure section. Reserved for war criminals, terrorists, and men deemed too dangerous for general population. Men who would die behind these walls. Men who would never see freedom again.No hope of release. No possibility of parole. No chance of appeal. Blake's conviction was final. His confession had sealed it. His guilty verdict made it permanent. Blake Sterling would die in this prison. Would spend decades in this eight-by-ten concrete box. Would grow old and broken and forgotten.Blake accepted his fate. Knew he'd earned it. Knew his crimes deserved punishment. Knew that everything he'd done—every murder, every act of violence, every war crime—had consequences. This was his consequence. This cell. This prison. This life sentence.Blake stopped fighting. Stopped resisting. Stopped being the man who'd battled everyone and everything. That man was dead. That Blake Sterling had

Blake stared at the screen. His mother's face frozen in the final frame. The words echoing in his mind. "Your grandfather founded the Consortium. You're the rightful heir."Everything Blake had fought against. Everything he'd testified against. Everything he'd destroyed. His own family had created it. Blake's grandfather had built the criminal empire that had hunted Blake for years. Had killed countless people. Had trafficked weapons and drugs and humans.And Blake was the heir. The only living descendant with claim to leadership. The rightful successor to a criminal empire worth five hundred billion dollars.Victoria watched Blake's face. "I know it's a lot to process. I know what this means.""My grandfather was a monster. Built an organization that destroyed millions of lives. And I'm supposed to be proud of this inheritance?" Blake's voice was hollow. "I testified against the Consortium. Destroyed it. Sent hundreds of members to prison. And now I learn I was destroying my own fami