The penthouse was silent, but the air felt charged, like the moments before a lightning strike.
Alexander hadn't let Elara go since they stepped out of the elevator. He sat at the massive mahogany desk in his study, but he hadn't pulled up a single financial report. Instead, he had Elara perched on the edge of the desk, his hands anchored on her waist as he watched her work.
"You're remarkably calm for someone whose net worth just got put on ice by the federal government," Alexander murmured, his voice a low vibration that she felt more than heard.
"I've already been dead once, Alexander," Elara replied, her eyes fixed on the three monitors glowing in the dim light. "A frozen bank account doesn't scare me. But the timing of this audit does."
She clicked through the digital signatures of the subpoena. "Agent Miller didn't just stumble onto our merger. This 'discrepancy' he mentioned? It's based on a tip-off filed six months ago. Before I even woke up in that dressing room. Before I ever approached you."
Alexander's eyes darkened, the possessive grip on her waist tightening. "Julian was too busy snorting his way through your mother's trust to understand federal tax law. He didn't file this."
"No," Elara agreed, her fingers flying across the keys. "But someone did. Someone who knew the Vance accounts better than I did. Someone who had been prepping a 'contingency plan' in case Julian failed to secure the marriage."
She hit a final command, bypassing the internal encryption of the FAB's tip-line portal—a trick she'd learned from a disgruntled IT head in her past life.
A name appeared on the screen. It wasn't Julian. It wasn't Chloe.
Informant: Richard Sterling.
Elara's breath hitched. She felt the blood drain from her face for the second time that night.
"Richard," she whispered, the name tasting like ash. "My stepfather."
Alexander stood up, the chair screeching against the floor. The temperature in the room plummeted. "Chloe's father? The man who vanished to 'oversee the overseas holdings' the week after your mother's funeral?"
"He didn't vanish," Elara realized, a cold, hard knot forming in her stomach. "He's been sitting in Washington. He knew Julian was a weak link. He let Julian play the villain so that if it all went south, he could swoop in as the 'distressed parent' and claim the Vance estate was being mismanaged by a corrupt billionaire—you."
Richard Sterling had been the one whispering in Julian's ear. He had been the one who taught Julian how to forge the signatures. And now that Julian was in a cage, Richard was moving to the final stage of his plan: using the government to strip Elara of her power so he could step back in as the "rightful" administrator.
"He wants the company," Alexander growled, walking around the desk. He looked like a man ready to burn down a city block. "He's using the FAB to create a vacuum, hoping the board will panic and appoint him to 'stabilize' the stock."
"He's not just after the company," Elara said, looking up at Alexander. "He knows about the merger. If he can prove the merger was fraudulent, the government will seize the Cross family's majority stake as well. He's not trying to save the Vance legacy. He's trying to swallow yours, too."
Alexander let out a low, dark laugh. He leaned over her, his hands caging her against the desk. The raw, unfiltered violence in his eyes was breathtaking.
"The man wants to eat my family?" Alexander whispered, his lips ghosting over hers. "I hope he's hungry. Because I'm going to feed him every single lie he's ever told until he chokes to death on them."
He grabbed his phone, dialing Liam's private line.
"Liam. Find Richard Sterling. He's likely staying at the Hay-Adams or the Willard. Do not touch him. Just make sure he knows we're coming."
Alexander hung up and looked at Elara. The heavy, suffocating tension between them shifted from corporate warfare to something much more primal.
"Tomorrow, we go to Washington," Alexander stated, his hand sliding up to the nape of her neck, pulling her closer. "But tonight... tonight, I want you to forget about audits. I want you to forget about your stepfather."
"Alexander—"
"Shh," he commanded, his mouth crashing down on hers with a desperate, soul-searing intensity.
He didn't want to talk about the law. He wanted to remind her—and himself—that no matter what the government froze, he still possessed the only thing that mattered.
The Twist for Chapter 26: They arrive in D.C. to confront Richard, but when they enter his hotel suite, they find him having dinner with a very alive, very smug Julian Cross, who has been released on a "technicality" provided by the FAB.
The game just became a three-way standoff. Are you ready for the face-off?