Chapter 1 - The Coat at MidnightThe man everyone feared chose the woman everyone had laughed at.
Twelve minutes after midnight, the entire ballroom knew I had been publicly humiliated.
By thirteen minutes, people were laughing.
By fifteen minutes, the man everyone in the room feared was standing in front of me.
Nathaniel Mercer removed his black coat without taking his eyes off my face.
Then he draped it over my bare shoulders.
The coat was still warm.
“Stand up,” he murmured.
I stared at him.
His voice was quiet enough that only I could hear it.
“Why?”
His gray eyes dropped briefly to my hands, which were shaking beneath the table.
“Because everyone in this room is waiting for you to break.”
Something inside me went still.
Across the ballroom, Daniel Reeves had stopped smiling.
Madeline Cross was still wearing the bracelet he had placed on her wrist.
Three hundred guests watched me.
Most of them expected tears.
I gave them none.
Slowly, I stood.
Nathaniel offered his arm.
I hesitated.
“Mr. Mercer,” I whispered, “I think you've made a mistake.”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
That single word carried a strange finality.
“No mistake.”
He turned toward the ballroom.
Conversation disappeared.
Even the orchestra stopped.
Nathaniel Mercer had arrived fifteen minutes ago and somehow already owned the room.
Grant Holloway, head of the Blackridge organization, stood near the center aisle with an expression I had never seen on his face before.
Fear.
Nathaniel's hand settled lightly against my back.
“Good evening,” he said.
No one answered.
His gaze moved toward Daniel.
“You seem to have made an announcement.”
Daniel swallowed.
“I did.”
Nathaniel looked at Madeline, then back at him.
“Then I assume everyone here understands that alliances are binding.”
Grant stepped forward.
“Nathaniel, this is a private Blackridge function.”
Nathaniel's expression did not change.
“I know.”
“My family did not extend an invitation to every employee.”
“I wasn't invited.”
A ripple of unease moved through the room.
Nathaniel's fingers tightened slightly against my back.
“I came because Pinehaven received information regarding a contract that concerns both our organizations.”
Grant's face hardened.
“And this woman?”
Nathaniel looked down at me.
For one terrifying second, I thought he might actually let me go.
Instead, he said, “She's with me.”
A murmur exploded through the crowd.
Daniel took one step forward.
“What?”
Nathaniel's eyes flicked toward him.
“You heard me.”
Daniel's face went pale.
I barely breathed.
This couldn't be happening.
Nathaniel Mercer was a stranger.
I had never met him.
So why was he standing beside me as if we had already made an agreement?
Madeline's expression finally cracked.
“She works payroll,” she said with a brittle laugh. “Nathaniel, I think you've confused her with someone else.”
Nathaniel didn't even look at her.
“No.”
His eyes remained on me.
“I know exactly who she is.”
My stomach dropped.
“How?”
He leaned closer.
His next words chilled me.
“Because I've been looking for you for six months.”
I turned toward him.
“What?”
Before he could answer, a glass shattered near the bar.
Everyone flinched.
A waiter had dropped it.
But Nathaniel didn't move.
Instead, his gaze became razor sharp.
“Down.”
He pulled me against him.
The lights went out.
Screams erupted around the ballroom.
Someone fired a gun.
Then another.
The chandelier overhead exploded into darkness.
Nathaniel shoved me to the floor and covered my body with his.
My cheek pressed against his chest.
I could hear his heartbeat.
Calm.
Controlled.
Almost unnaturally steady.
A second gunshot cracked through the room.
Nathaniel whispered directly into my ear.
“Do not move.”
“What's happening?”
“Someone came here to kill me.”
Another shot.
Then a scream.
Nathaniel lifted his head slightly.
His voice became ice.
“And they just made one mistake.”
“What?”
“They shot at the woman standing beside me.”
He reached beneath his jacket.
I felt metal.
A gun.
Before I could react, he rose into the darkness.
Three seconds later, someone screamed.
Then came silence.
The emergency lights flickered on.
People were crouched under tables.
Crystal glittered across the floor.
And Daniel Reeves was staring at me.
Not with guilt.
Not with shock.
With terror.
Because behind him stood a man in a black mask.
Dead.
Nathaniel lowered his gun.
Then he turned toward me.
Blood streaked his shirt.
But it wasn't his.
He walked toward me as if the entire ballroom belonged to him.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Good.”
Then he looked at Daniel.
“Because now we have a bigger problem.”
Daniel's lips parted.
Nathaniel's voice carried across the ballroom.
“Someone inside Blackridge just tried to murder the woman I came here to claim.”
My blood ran cold.
Claim?
What exactly did Nathaniel Mercer think I was to him?
And why had he been searching for me?
Then he reached into his pocket.
He pulled out an old photograph.
My breath stopped.
It was a picture of my mother.
May you like
On the back, written in her handwriting, were three words.
Trust Nathaniel Mercer.
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