Chapter 1
“Then who kissed you in the elevator?”
Finnian’s amplified voice traveled across the rooftop pavilion.
No stutter.
No hesitation.
Just one question.
Coralie’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
I looked at her.
Not at the guests.
Not at the microphone.
Her.
“Answer him.”
She swallowed.
“He misunderstood.”
Finnian pressed closer to Adela.
I lowered the microphone immediately.
No more public performance.
“Finnian.”
He looked at me.
“Did you see the man clearly?”
Coralie stepped forward.
“This is ridiculous.”
I turned my eyes toward her.
She stopped.
Finnian nodded.
“He had a black flower here.”
He touched his lapel.
My chest tightened.
A black enamel carnation.
Only one man I knew wore one.
Cassian Blackwell.
My cousin.
My former closest associate.
A man who had not entered a Blackwell property in four years.
A man I had personally ordered out after he tried to divide half my captains against me.
I looked at Coralie.
“Cassian?”
Her face answered before her mouth did.
Finnian tugged his mother’s hand.
“There was something else.”
Adela looked down.
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes.”
I crouched so the boy would not need to look upward at me.
“What else?”
His lips trembled again.
“He gave her a little gold key.”
Coralie shut her eyes.
Interesting.
“What key?”
Finnian pointed toward the private elevator behind the floral partition.
“He said it still opens the downstairs room.”
The Founder Room.
A private lounge beneath the pavilion.
My father had used it for meetings no guest ever attended.
Only three keys existed.
Mine.
My late father’s.
And Cassian’s.
I had taken Cassian’s from him four years ago.
Or believed I had.
I straightened.
“Where is he?”
Coralie whispered:
“He already left.”
Finnian shook his head.
Everyone noticed.
Coralie stared at him with naked hatred.
The boy took one breath.
Then another.
“He went down.”
I looked toward the elevator.
Cassian had not crashed my engagement to steal a kiss.
May you like
He was somewhere beneath my feet—
inside a room only Blackwell blood was supposed to enter.
