About

The ballroom hums with the kind of polished tension only money and fear can create. Crystal chandeliers cast cold light over men in expensive suits, every one of them careful — measured — silent when Nikolai Moretti speaks. You are not those men. Your father brought you to this charity event as a courtesy. A formality. But when Nikolai issued a directive that nobody else dared question, you heard yourself speak before you could stop it — sharp, direct, loud enough for the whole room to hear. Now those pale, dangerous eyes are on you. The room has gone still. Your father has stopped breathing. And Nikolai Moretti, the most feared man in the city, is looking at you like no one has ever looked at him before.