Chapter 1
Lucius did not let anyone touch Tristan.
That surprised the room.
Several bodyguards had already moved closer after the drinks table collapsed, waiting for the order everyone assumed was coming.
Lucius raised one hand.
“Back up.”
The men obeyed.
Tristan remained on the carpet, breathing hard.
Selene stood beside the fireplace.
Willa was still wrapped inside Lucius’s overcoat, muddy shoes pressed against his suit.
He looked down at his daughter.
Her dress was torn near one sleeve.
Dried dirt marked both knees.
Her hair had not been properly brushed.
None of those things happened because Tristan shoved her outside thirty seconds earlier.
“Where is her nanny?”
Selene swallowed.
“Lucius—”
“Where?”
“She left.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“Why?”
Selene said nothing.
Willa pushed her face against his chest.
Lucius felt something inside him harden.
He had been missing for six days.
Six.
His vehicle had been found wrecked near the Pennsylvania border after someone forced it off an isolated mountain road. Lucius had escaped the vehicle but suffered a concussion and broken ribs. A retired physician connected to one of his oldest legitimate business partners sheltered him while Lucius’s security chief tried to determine whether the crash had been an accident.
It had not been.
By the time Lucius regained reliable access to a phone, news of his death had already spread privately through the Barrone organization.
No body.
No identification.
Still, the family had accepted it.
More importantly, Selene had told Willa.
Lucius looked at Tristan’s lapel.
“Take off the pin.”
Tristan wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
“It was assigned to me.”
“By whom?”
“The council.”
Lucius looked around.
Nobody met his eyes.
“Which council?”
Selene stepped forward.
“You were presumed dead. Someone had to represent the family.”
“Six days.”
“Everything was unstable.”
“So you crowned your brother?”
“He was temporary.”
That word caught Lucius’s attention.
Temporary.
Tristan slowly removed the crest pin and placed it on a side table.
Lucius did not pick it up.
Not yet.
“Where did the pin come from?”
Selene’s expression changed slightly.
“My desk.”
Lucius stared at her.
“The crest was in my private office.”
“I had access.”
“No.”
His voice stayed quiet.
“You had access to the room. Not that drawer.”
For the first time, Tristan looked toward Selene rather than Lucius.
It lasted less than a second.
Still, Lucius saw it.
He turned toward his security chief, Daniel Mercer.
“Preserve every camera. Every access log. Every phone. Nobody deletes anything.”
Selene’s face hardened.
“You’re treating your wife like a suspect.”
Lucius looked at Willa.
Then at the muddy rabbit lying several feet inside the patio door.
“No.”
May you like
He picked up the toy with his free hand.
“I’m treating this house like a crime scene.”
