Chapter 1 - The Woman at My Door
A woman stood barefoot outside my penthouse door, shaking and whispering:
"Please... don't let them find me."
When mafia boss Declan Hayes opened the door, he found a blood-stained sleeve and a broken office keycard belonging to his missing secretary.
But three words were scratched into the back:
"Trust no one."
Declan suddenly realized this wasn't an ordinary attack.
The first thing I noticed was not her face.
It was the blood.
At 1:07 in the morning, my penthouse was supposed to be silent. The kind of silence money buys. The kind of silence powerful men like me depend on.
But when I opened that door, everything changed.
Sadie Collins stood outside like she had escaped from a nightmare.
Her dark hair was wet and tangled. Her breathing was uneven. Her bare feet were covered in dirt and small cuts from running across the city streets.
She looked nothing like the woman who entered my office every morning at eight sharp.
The woman who organized my meetings.
The woman who remembered every detail.
The woman who never made mistakes.
"Declan..." she whispered.
I hadn't heard fear in her voice before.
Not once.
"What happened?"
She looked behind her.
Not at me.
Behind her.
That told me everything.
Someone had been chasing her.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside before anyone outside could see her standing there.
The moment the door closed, Sadie almost collapsed.
I caught her before she hit the floor.
My first instinct was suspicion.
My second was anger.
Because nobody reached my secretary without passing through my security.
And my security had never failed.
Until tonight.
"Who did this?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she looked toward the hallway cameras.
"Turn them off."
I stared at her.
"Why?"
Her eyes filled with panic.
"Because they already know I'm here."
That sentence bothered me more than the blood.
Sadie was not someone who scared easily.
Three years working beside me had taught her how dangerous my world could be.
She had seen men threaten me.
She had seen enemies disappear.
She had watched people lower their voices when my name was mentioned.
But tonight, she wasn't afraid of me.
She was afraid of someone else.
I walked toward the security panel and shut down the cameras.
Then I returned to her.
"Start talking."
She looked at her injured sleeve.
Slowly, she reached inside the torn fabric.
And pulled out something small.
A black flash drive.
I recognized it immediately.
Not because of the device.
Because of the symbol carved into it.
A symbol belonging to my organization.
My family.
My empire.
"Where did you get that?"
Sadie's hands trembled.
"Your right-hand man gave it to me."
The room became silent.
My right-hand man.
The person who had worked beside me for twelve years.
The person I trusted with my life.
"That's impossible."
Sadie shook her head.
"I saw what he did."
I stepped closer.
"What did he do?"
She opened her mouth.
But before she could answer, every light in my penthouse suddenly turned off.
The room went completely dark.
Then my phone vibrated.
One message appeared.
Unknown number.
Only five words.
"She is not who you think."
I looked at Sadie.
She looked at me.
And then the elevator outside my penthouse stopped on my floor.
The doors opened.
May you like
Someone stepped out.
And they were carrying my missing security file.
