Chapter 1 - The Alleyway
The black car jumped the curb just as Elena Marlowe stepped out of the restaurant’s back door.
Tires screamed across rain-slick pavement.
Elena barely had time to turn before twin headlights flooded her vision.
A hand seized her around the waist.
Her entire body was yanked backward.
Her spine hit a hard chest at the exact moment the sedan shot past, one tire missing the toe of her shoe by inches.
A gunshot cracked through the rain.
The glass door behind her exploded.
Elena stopped breathing.
The man behind her immediately turned her into his body, shielding her from the street. One arm locked around her waist while the other hand covered the back of her head and forced her face against his shoulder.
“Don’t look up.”
The voice was low.
Controlled.
Not loud at all.
But Elena knew it instantly.
Everyone in Ravenport would have.
Adrian Vale.
The man restaurant owners lowered their voices to discuss.
The man city councilmen smiled too quickly around.
The man who owned hotels, nightclubs, a shipping company, and three of the tallest buildings in the financial district—and, according to the whispers no newspaper ever dared print, enough secrets to bury half the city.
Elena went rigid in his arms.
“You—”
“Quiet.”
This time Adrian’s voice was colder.
Not toward her.
Toward the three men in dark suits who had appeared across the street.
Two of Adrian’s security men moved instantly. One covered them while the other opened the rear door of a black SUV parked at the curb.
Adrian did not release Elena.
He put her inside first, then climbed in after her.
The door slammed.
Suddenly there was nothing but rain hammering against bullet-resistant glass.
Elena pressed herself against the opposite door, breathing too fast. Her hands shook so badly that she had to fist them in the black fabric of her server’s dress.
Adrian sat across from her.
His black suit looked absurdly perfect for an alley crowded with trash bins and broken pavement. His charcoal tie was still neatly knotted. Dark hair was damp at the temples.
A thin line of blood ran across the back of his hand.
Elena stared.
“You’re hurt.”
Adrian glanced down as though the blood belonged to someone else.
“It isn’t mine.”
She immediately went pale.
He was silent for two seconds.
“Glass.”
“You just said it wasn’t yours.”
“I didn’t want you panicking.”
“Someone just tried to run me over and then fired a gun where I was standing.” Her voice trembled more from anger than fear. “A little late to worry about that.”
His gray eyes settled on her.
Something strange happened.
The corner of his mouth almost moved.
Not exactly a smile.
But close enough to infuriate her.
“Let me out.”
“No.”
“I don’t know who you think you are—”
“I know exactly who I am.”
“Wonderful. Then you should also know kidnapping is illegal.”
“You were almost hit by a car. Then someone fired into the position where you were standing.” Adrian leaned forward. “If you want to call me removing you from there kidnapping, feel free.”
Elena reached for the phone in her pocket.
Nothing.
She remembered leaving it in her employee locker.
Along with her purse.
Her wallet.
Her apartment keys.
Perfect.
An absolutely perfect night.
“Take me back for my things.”
“No.”
“Can you stop saying that word?”
“Yes.”
Elena stared at him.
Adrian continued.
“But not tonight.”
The SUV began moving.
Elena looked through the window as the lights of old Ravenport blurred in the rain.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why is someone trying to kill me?”
Adrian did not answer.
His silence tightened something cold in her stomach.
Elena turned.
“You know.”
“Possibly.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only answer you’re getting until we reach somewhere secure.”
“We?”
“You and me.”
“There is no ‘we’ between us.”
Adrian looked at her then.
Not coldly.
Not angrily.
Just with too much focus.
“Elena.”
She froze.
It was the first time he had said her name.
It was also the moment she realized something that sent ice down her spine.
She had never introduced herself to Adrian Vale.
Three hours earlier, Elena had believed the biggest problem in her life was the two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand-dollar debt her dead brother had left behind.
She had been wrong.
Daniel Marlowe died eight months ago when his car went off the east bridge in Ravenport.
Police said he had been driving too fast.
The report blamed loss of control.
The insurance company refused to pay because traces of sedatives had been found in his blood.
Elena did not believe it.
Daniel hated taking medicine.
But no one cared what she believed.
Two weeks after the funeral, the collection letters began arriving.
Daniel had mortgaged their parents’ house.
Daniel had borrowed against the family construction company.
Daniel had signed contracts Elena had never seen.
Then one morning she woke to discover her savings account frozen because of a civil lawsuit.
One semester away from finishing law school, Elena became a waitress working double shifts just to keep her childhood home from going to auction.
She had become accustomed to pity.
To people who once called her Miss Marlowe now calling her simply Elena.
To whispers claiming Daniel had been a fraud.
But she never learned to tolerate people calling him a thief.
And she certainly was not prepared for someone trying to kill her.
The SUV stopped beneath a tower.
Elena recognized it immediately.
Vale Tower.
Forty-eight stories of black glass overlooking Ravenport like a warning.
Adrian stepped out first.
Then he held out a hand.
Elena looked at it.
“No.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I can walk.”
“You’re wearing slick shoes, the concrete is wet, and you were nearly hit by a car twenty minutes ago.”
“I can still walk.”
Silence.
Adrian withdrew his hand.
“All right.”
Elena stepped out.
Two steps later, she slipped.
An arm immediately wrapped around her waist.
Adrian pulled her against him.
Elena had to plant both palms on his chest to steady herself.
Neither moved.
The scent of cedar, rain, and something coldly metallic clung to his suit.
She became far too aware of how little space existed between them.
Adrian looked down at her.
His eyes dropped to her mouth for one brief second.
Then returned to hers.
“What were you saying?”
Elena clenched her jaw.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Look smug.”
May you like
“Not one of my habits.”
“You look smug.”
