hitting the marble stairs ech

red, rhythmic, and

nuine leather sofa in the

together as he watched his adopted daughter descend the stairs

hurried down the

udly to Howard about how Alondra ha

iskey glass down on t

ce red with fury, yelling that Alondra had just ruin

the opposite side o

his glass. In less than three seconds, her trained mind processed t

ing laugh esc

ose the raw human desperation underneath. "That man, Vince Pollock? His micro-expressions, the unnatural sweat on his brow, and the panicked look in his dead eyes tell me h

ace draine

od to be true, but his massive ego refused to let him admit t

s chest, asserti

lared that she was stripped of the Frank name

out from behi

ce. With Alondra gone, she was the sole he

into his tailor

bit card and tossed it onto the expensive P

ward sneered. "Buy a bus ticket and crawl back t

r arms, her lips

," Brenda added sharply. "Go en

glance at the plasti

hem with a mixture of profou

fted he

ame down hard on the debit card. The p

neck vein

ty guards to come in and

front do

into the living room. One of them reached

right foot back a

ist, twisted it against the joint, and us

ed heavily into the

afening crash. The man groaned, rolling in the shards. The

nda, and Ch

falling onto the sofa to

usted off

Howard, who was s

ndra stated, using precise, high-level Wall Street terminology. "Your

ath caught i

ith the classified financial data she just casu

a turn

er coats in the closet. She picked up the faded, w

the front do

oulder one last time.

door open and let it

e's hysterical screaming an

ook a dee

lungs. The physical sensation grounded her, solidifyi

wide, tree-lined ave

sifting through the lies the Franks had told her

whipped down

tion, but she kept her spine per

k Range Rover

e, splashing dirty water th

ra st

e rear window was halfway down. Even from a distance, the harsh, flickering streetlights illuminated the terrifying silhoue