Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN IN THE ALLEY
Thirty minutes earlier, Victoria Hayes had been one of the most powerful CEOs in America.
Now she was sitting in a filthy Seattle alley, half-blind, soaked through, and begging a stranger not to hurt her.
“Please,” she whispered, pressing herself against the cold brick wall. “They already took everything.”
Her purse.
Her phone.
Her glasses.
One of her heels had snapped when the three armed men shoved her to the pavement. Her ankle had twisted beneath her, and every attempt to move sent pain burning up her leg.
Rain poured over her cream suit, carrying mud and a thin streak of blood from her temple down her cheek.
A shadow moved closer.
Victoria flinched.
“Ma’am, stay calm,” a deep voice said. “I’m not going to touch you.”
The man stopped several feet away and raised his hands.
Without her glasses, Victoria could see only a blurred outline—broad shoulders, dark clothing, rainwater running from his hair.
“I can’t see,” she admitted.
Another voice came from behind him.
A child’s voice.
“Daddy, she’s crying.”
The man turned slightly.
“Stay by the car, Sofia. Call 911.”
“No police,” Victoria blurted.
The response came too quickly.
The stranger noticed.
“My name is Daniel Carter,” he said gently. “I work security at the medical building around the corner. You’re injured and freezing. Let the ambulance come.”
He removed his jacket slowly and placed it around her shoulders without touching her skin.
It smelled faintly of coffee and laundry detergent.
Ordinary.
Safe.
Victoria nearly cried from the unfamiliarity of simple kindness.
She had spent twenty years learning how to survive hostile boardrooms, predatory investors, and executives who smiled while preparing to remove her.
Yet this stranger asked for nothing.
His seven-year-old daughter returned carrying a bright red umbrella almost as large as she was.
Sofia held it over Victoria and said, “Daddy makes things better.”
For one fragile second, Victoria smiled.
Then headlights flared at the entrance to the alley.
A black SUV rolled to a stop.
Even without her glasses, Victoria recognized it.
Her body went rigid.
“No,” she whispered. “Not him.”
A man stepped from the vehicle and began walking toward them through the rain.
Daniel moved in front of Victoria.
“Do you know him?”
Victoria stared at the approaching figure.
“His name is Marcus Vale.”
“Who is he?”
“My former husband.”
Marcus stopped beneath the alley light.
His expression was calm.
Too calm.
May you like
“Victoria,” he called. “Thank God I found you before the police did.”
Cliffhanger: Marcus claimed he had come to rescue Victoria—but she knew he was the only person who would benefit if she disappeared before the next morning’s board vote.
