Chapter 1
“Maya. Who tied your hands?”
She drew one shaking breath.
Victoria looked at her.
Not frightened.
Warning her.
That was my answer before Maya gave me one.
“Ms. Hale.”
The room changed.
My fiancée did not move.
Maya’s voice became smaller.
“And Mr. Waverly.”
I stopped.
There were thirty-eight Waverlys at dinner.
“Which one?”
Maya looked past me.
Toward the far end of the table.
My cousin Elias slowly lowered his wineglass.
Interesting.
Elias had been my father’s favorite nephew.
My adviser for eleven years.
The man who stood beside me when I buried my father.
Victoria finally spoke.
“She’s lying.”
Bruno growled softly.
Not at Maya.
At Victoria.
Her eyes dropped toward his collar again.
There.
Second time.
I put one hand beneath Bruno’s leather collar.
Victoria stood.
“Dominic, don’t.”
Every guest heard her.
I looked at her.
“Don’t what?”
She realized too late.
Maya stepped closer.
“They were trying to take something out of his collar.”
My fingers moved along the leather.
Near the buckle, one section felt thicker.
Old stitching.
Recently cut.
Then resewn badly.
I pulled the collar free.
Bruno remained still.
Trusted me.
Victoria did not.
She moved around the table.
My bodyguard stepped between us.
I opened the cut seam with my thumbnail.
Something metallic touched my finger.
A small brass key slid into my palm.
Elias closed his eyes.
I had never seen the key.
But I knew the engraving.
Three tiny waves beneath a crown.
My father’s private mark.
He had used it on rooms nobody entered without him.
My engagement dinner disappeared around me.
All I could see was that key.
My father had been dead seven years.
Bruno had belonged to him before becoming mine.
I looked at Elias.
“What does this open?”
He said nothing.
Victoria whispered:
“Dominic.”
I turned toward her.
“You tied Maya because she found this?”
Her face hardened.
“No.”
Maya answered instead.
“She found me because I saw her cut Bruno’s collar.”
That was the first truth.
May you like
Not the last.
And whatever my father had hidden with his dog for seven years had frightened my fiancée enough to bind a woman’s hands on the night she planned to become my wife.
