Zach slowed the car as the residential street came into view. The headlights swept across the pavement and the row of houses before settling on the one Melody had pointed out earlier during the drive. He eased his foot onto the brake and brought the vehicle to a smooth stop in front of the gate.His eyes swept over the house quickly; so this was the house Karl had told him he had bought after cutting ties with Maxwell. The same house that might have been the reason why she had ordered for him to be killed. Zach glanced at Melody briefly. She sat beside him with her hands resting loosely in her lap. Her fingers were still tense from the events that had happened barely two hours ago.The ballroom, the sudden sound of gunfire, the moment Zach had pulled her out of the way before the chaos fully erupted. It had all happened so quickly that her body still felt as if it was catching up to the shock of it.She glanced toward him.Zach’s hands rested casually on the steering wheel as if the

Karl stood near the long table that sat in the center of the living area, his attention fixed on the large monitor Zach had connected to his laptop. The glow from the screen washed across the room, illuminating the three men gathered around it while the rest of the loft remained dim. Reed stood a few steps behind Karl with his hands behind his back and faced a void of expression as usual. He had asked Maxwell to allow him the honour of serving Karl again after years of the young master's disappearance. Luckily, the old man had agreed. Why he did remains a mystery to both Karl and Reed. Zach sat in front of the laptop with one leg stretched out under the table and the other bouncing slightly as his fingers moved across the keyboard. Several windows filled the screen; security footage, timestamps, and small digital maps that marked the location of different cameras inside and outside the ballroom where the attack had happened.Karl had decided to look deeper into the attack, someth

Anna did not expect the slap.The sound of it cracked through the office before she even fully processed what had happened. Her head jerked to the side as pain flared across her cheek. For a moment the room spun slightly and she tasted copper at the back of her mouth where her teeth had cut into the inside of her lip.She stood frozen where she was, one hand slowly rising to touch the burning skin of her face.Across the desk, Melody was still standing with her arm half-lowered and her eyes as cold as ever.“How dare you?!” Melody said.Anna blinked, trying to steady herself. Her thoughts struggled to catch up with the situation. Only minutes earlier she had been called into the office without explanation and then she got hit. Across the room, Caden stood behind Melody, hands to his pocket as his gaze remained fixed on Anna. She had always thought Caden would do anything Melody asked but she'd been wrong. He was pretending to be tameable. Melody turned slightly toward him. “You we

Karl pushed open the door to the hotel room as quietly as he could. The last thing he wanted was for him to wake her up. The door swung open and he stepped inside quietly, his eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering through the curtains. His eyes searched the small sitting area, he could have dropped it on the couch or even on the bed. He searched the room but there was no sign of his phone. Karl ran his fingers through his hair, where the hell is it? He walked deeper into the room and stopped to see Anna, sitting on the edge of the bed, her hair tousled from sleep, her cheeks flushed clearly from the shots she had earlier. Her eyes met his, searching his face for something he couldn't really put a finger on. “Hey.” He said quietly. “Just came for my phone. Didn't mean to wake you.” Anna said nothing but she took a step closer to him, eyes fixed on his face with something he couldn't quite pin point. “Anna?” “This has to be a dream.” She mumbled, he could barely make out t