At sunset, a helicopter skimmed over the waters surrounding the Veymoor Islands, in the waters of the Republic of Aldovia. The sea was unusually calm, its surface catching the aircraft's reflection as it passed.A woman in military uniform leaned out of the open door, her hair streaming in the wind. She was beautiful, with fine features and a figure the uniform did little to hide, but her eyes discouraged a second look. There was something in that cool, searching gaze that made people straighten up and look elsewhere.As the prison island came into view, she curled her hands into fists. For the first time during the flight, she looked uncertain.Three years since she'd seen him. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, wondering what those years had done to him.Grimholt Island Prison had been built in 1994 to hold the most dangerous criminals on the continent of Edrath. Laser sensors and pressure pads covered the perimeter, backed by patrols with attack dogs. It was the continent'

According to the file, Maria Sten ran Sterling Group in Bellwick City. Cornell left the hospital with the address and set off to find her.Walking through the city felt stranger than he had expected. He'd only been gone three years, but whole stretches of it seemed to have changed while he wasn't looking. After asking for directions several times, he finally found Sterling Tower, the company's headquarters.Now that he knew where it was, he decided he could spare a little time to find somewhere to stay. For three years, he'd spent twenty-three hours a day in a cell barely thirteen feet across. He'd had enough of those four walls to last him a lifetime.Being back among traffic, shops, and ordinary people put a spring in his step.Then he remembered how little money he had.His accounts had been frozen when he'd gone to prison. Everything he could currently call his own amounted to less than seven hundred and fifty dollars, and he'd borrowed that from Hannah before leaving the hospital

After talking his landlady into feeding him breakfast, Cornell changed into the suit he'd rented the night before and headed straight for Sterling Tower.He'd found a job posting online the previous evening. Maria Sten was looking for an executive assistant. If she wouldn't have him as a fiancé, perhaps she'd have him as an employee. Either way, he'd be close enough to keep her safe.Sterling Group occupied nearly forty floors of the tower, right in the heart of Bellwick City. With downtown property prices as high as they were, the offices alone said plenty about how much money the company had.Its main businesses were fashion and cosmetics. The products sold throughout the Republic of Aldovia and in a growing number of markets abroad, making it an international company in every sense.The industry also meant that the building was full of attractive women in business attire. Plenty of men would have considered working there a perk in itself, so every recruitment drive drew a flood of

The five guards had managed only to make Cornell look even more impressive.Maria knew these men. They were military veterans, all of them capable in a fight, yet he had handled them as though they posed no threat at all.What she'd just seen belonged in an action movie. Even a trained stunt performer would have needed a wire harness to pull it off, and the man she'd dismissed as a nobody had done it without so much as breaking a sweat.She pressed a hand over her mouth, fighting the urge to gasp.She might have underestimated him.Cornell paid little attention to her reaction. He took out his phone, dialed, and spoke loudly enough for her to hear.“General Sten, I'm sorry. Your granddaughter has a lot going for her, but we're not right for each other. I'll do everything I can to keep her safe. As for the engagement, I'd appreciate it if you let that go.”There was a long silence before the old man answered.“All right,” he said at last, the disappointment plain in his voice. “Thank y