Chapter 1 - The ChoiceThe black SUV disappeared into the Chicago night as Evelyn Ward stared through the tinted window.
For the first time in three years, Nolan Pierce was no longer sitting beside her.
She should have felt relieved.
Instead, she felt strangely empty.
Damen Voss sat across from her, perfectly composed, his dark suit untouched by the chaos he had just walked into. He looked out the window as if nothing unusual had happened.
Evelyn pressed her injured palm against a handkerchief.
Blood had already soaked through the fabric.
“You always carry a first-aid kit?” she asked.
Damen glanced at her hand.
“No.”
“Then why does your driver have one?”
“Because I plan for things.”
She almost smiled.
“People bleeding in the back seat?”
“Among other things.”
The answer should have sounded frightening.
It did.
But there was something else in his voice.
Control.
The kind she had never felt around Nolan.
Nolan made every room feel like a test she was destined to fail.
Damen made every room feel as though he had already calculated ten ways to get her out safely.
The SUV slowed at a red light.
Damen finally looked at her.
“You can still leave.”
Evelyn frowned.
“What?”
“The car can stop.”
She stared at him.
“You said you wanted me to come with you.”
“I said come with me. I didn't say you belonged to me.”
Her heartbeat stumbled.
Nolan had never understood the difference.
Damen did.
“Then where are we going?” she asked.
“My house.”
“That sounds worse.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“It has better security than the hotel.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
The SUV turned through a set of iron gates.
Evelyn expected a mansion.
Instead, she found a massive glass-and-stone estate surrounded by black iron fencing and tall trees. Security cameras watched every entrance. Men in dark suits stood near the doors.
The house looked less like a home and more like a fortress built by someone who trusted no one.
Damen stepped out first.
Then he held the door open.
Evelyn hesitated.
“You really expect me to spend the night here?”
“Yes.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Because you rescued me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Damen looked at her for a long second.
“Because the moment you walked out of that ballroom, you became a problem.”
Her stomach tightened.
“A problem?”
“For Nolan.”
Silence.
“And possibly for someone else.”
Evelyn stepped out.
“Who?”
Damen's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But she noticed.
“That,” he said, “is what I intend to find out.”
Inside, the house was warmer than she expected.
A woman in her fifties appeared almost immediately with a medical bag.
“Miss Ward.”
Evelyn blinked.
“You know my name?”
“Mr. Voss knows everything.”
Damen walked away.
Evelyn looked after him.
“That is comforting.”
The woman smiled politely.
“No, dear. It isn't.”
Twenty minutes later, Evelyn sat at the kitchen island with her hand bandaged.
Damen stood by the window, phone pressed to his ear.
His voice was low.
“Lock down the north side.”
A pause.
“No one enters without my approval.”
Another pause.
Then his expression hardened.
“And find out who followed her.”
Evelyn froze.
He hung up.
“Someone followed me?”
“We don't know.”
“Then why did you say it?”
“Because I don't like coincidences.”
He walked toward her.
“What happened before you left the hotel?”
“Nothing.”
“Think carefully.”
Evelyn swallowed.
“Nolan insulted me.”
“I know.”
“He humiliated me.”
“I know.”
“Then I left.”
Damen studied her.
“Did Nolan touch you?”
“No.”
“Threaten you?”
“No.”
“Did anyone approach you?”
She hesitated.
“One man.”
Damen stopped.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“What did he say?”
Evelyn remembered.
A strange moment near the ladies' room.
A man in a gray suit.
A hand on her shoulder.
A whisper.
You should have married Pierce.
She had dismissed it.
Now she didn't.
“He said I should have married Nolan.”
Damen's face went completely still.
“Where?”
“At the hotel.”
“What did he look like?”
“Gray suit. Dark hair. Maybe fifty.”
Damen turned toward the windows.
“What?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he walked to the side table and picked up a photograph.
He stared at it.
Then he handed it to her.
Evelyn's breath stopped.
It was the same man.
“Who is he?”
Damen's eyes were cold.
“My biggest enemy.”
Before Evelyn could speak, every light in the house went out.
The security alarms screamed.
Glass shattered somewhere downstairs.
Men shouted.
Damen moved instantly.
He grabbed Evelyn and pulled her behind him.
Three gunshots cracked through the darkness.
Evelyn's breath caught.
Damen reached beneath his jacket.
Then someone shouted from outside.
“VOSS!”
A fourth shot exploded.
Damen looked at Evelyn.
“For the next thirty seconds,” he whispered, “do exactly what I say.”
She nodded.
He leaned closer.
“And whatever happens…”
His eyes locked onto hers.
May you like
“Do not let anyone take you.”
Then the front doors exploded inward.
