Rising From Ashes: The CEO's Secret Queen

bit into the gravel driveway of Blackw

d out into the night air that smelled of cut grass and old money. The manor loomed above him, every window dark except

squeeze." The way she had named Apex Technology's hidden liabilities as if reading from a confidential due diligence report. T

d the bezel once, twice. A habit from childhood, from the years b

it. Mrs. O'Connell stood there in her night

rd, I wasn't

ave

he stairs two at a time, his hand sliding along the mahogany banister. The house smelled of h

s ajar. He pushed i

k glowed against her pale face, casting blue shadows beneath her eyes. She wore that same silk robe from the morning,

he noted, but with something closer to calcula

She cleared her throat. "The stock

ant to know how you knew about Apex's patent litigation. That information wasn't in any public filing. It wasn't in our pr

g the edge of the flesh-toned bandage on her hand. The g

closed the laptop with a soft sna

lls

the foot of the bed, close enough to see the pulse flutteri

e pen from two nights ago. The one that had almost signed away their marr

mb found his watch again, circling, circling. "There was another player today. Thirty billion in coordinated buy orders that weren't mine.

is, and for a moment he saw something there-not fear, but recogn

ing with someone."

dle of something that will get you killed." He leaned forward, planting one hand on the bedpost. "Car

he finished for him. Her voice

't seem to know anything. You don't know how you got that intelligence. You don't know who helped you execut

heets beneath her. Then something shifted. Her spine straightened. Her chin lifted. The transformation was instant

e planned this myself. That everything I've done-the pills, the tears, the-" she gestured wildly at the space b

dy to die for him. Now you've destroyed him. Is this some kind of twisted honey trap I haven't figured out yet? Are you trying to bleed me dry to

duvet and gripped until her knuckles blanched white. She was shaking, he r

t o

ha

til you find the conspiracy you're so sure exists? Fine. But you don't get to stand there with your pen and yo

wing the hollow where a pill had nearly ended everything. She took two steps toward him, clos

wing, while you were counting down the days until you could finally be rid of me-I was learning. Reading. Watching." Her voice cracked on the last word, and tears spilled over, but

The pen hung forgotte

ween them, the gold nib catching the chandelier light, and for a terrible moment he

ingers. The pen fell to t

loved her husband enough to become someone he might f

ozen, his hand empty, his chest constricted in a way that had nothing to do with the tightnes

ended them. The same pen that had hovered over signatures that would

xand

ection in the glass was a

e hiding. And when I do-" He stopped. He didn't know how to finish. The threat f

lipped it back into his pocket.

with a sound like a perio

knees buckled and she slid to the floor, her back against the window glass, her forehead

ing-but he knew enough. The third-par

fingers finding the laptop. The screen woke to a b

EN

ts across a thousand shell companies, become untraceable. She had done it before, in anoth

e space where he had stood, empty-hande

and enough to become someo

was the danger. That was how she had died before-confu

years old and a hundred years dead. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her lips bitten raw, but ther

she told her reflection. "And he's not

fingertip meeting her twi

y was measured in days, maybe hours. She needed to move faster. Deeper. Before he unearthed Starlight, before he traced Quee

the mirror and began to dre

d warned her about-would be waking up to margin calls and ruin

rrange. A death to pre

pped it, its gold nib catching the light like a wink,