Chapter 4

4: 4

Across the floor, Wall Street's biggest names raised their champagne, all smiles as they watched the young financial titan from the East.

"Mr. Sanchez, it's time. Please ring the bell."

The executive held out the mallet with a bow.

Mortimer gave a slight nod, his long fingers closing around the handle. But in the instant he lifted his arm—

His head snapped to one side, and on the calm right cheek,

a handprint bloomed, clear as anything, spreading fast enough to see.

The executive and the reporters all froze.

Before anyone could react.

"Ngh—!"

A ragged gasp forced its way through his clenched teeth.

His body shuddered hard, and the mallet hit the floor with a clatter.

Under the horrified stares of the whole room, Mortimer's right shin seized into a strange, violent spasm.

Thud.

He dropped, out of his own control, to his knees on the floor.

Cold sweat rolled off his forehead in an instant.

"Mr. Sanchez!!"

"Boss!!"

The entire hall erupted.

Robert James and a wall of bodyguards tore up onto the stage.

"Doctor! Get the medical team! Clear the room! Clear it now!"

Robert lunged in to help him up and got his arm seized in a grip so hard the nails nearly dug into flesh.

Those eyes, always so cold, were shot through with red now, wild in a way that turned the blood to ice.

"Naomi..."

He forced the name out through his teeth, and every syllable came thick with the taste of blood.

"Trace... the estate alarm... something's happened to Naomi..."

"Ready the jet. Now! Right now!!"

Robert had the encrypted satellite phone out already, hammering the estate's comm lines.

Nothing.

The security system was completely offline.

His hands were shaking.

If something had happened to Miss Swanson, it would rock the whole Sanchez family, and every power player in the city with it.

He switched channels fast and called the informant they kept back home.

"Find out. Right now, who went to the suburban estate in the last ten minutes!"

On the other end the keyboard rattled, and in under five seconds the informant reported back, voice unsteady:

"Executive Assistant James... I've got it. Half an hour ago, Marie Fox took over a dozen excavators and a crew of bodyguards and forced her way into the estate..."

"Marie Fox?!"

Robert sucked in a sharp breath. That reckless little fool!

Did she really think that just because the Sanchezes hadn't refused the marriage alliance, she'd become the rightful mistress of the house?!

He pulled up Marie's number and called it straight.

...