son

attan the next day, shrouding the steel s

shmere overcoat. At the nape of my neck, the matte-black titanium cuff re

umbrella as I stepped through the revol

ers operated less like a business and more like a high tribunal for the nation's billionaires. The three-story lobby was paved in slabs of black and

ior partners in bespoke suits moved acros

tion desk when the revolving doors spun again, an

n on his lapel to broadcast his status. Clinging to his left arm was Camelia, dressed in a past

her voice rising loud enough to turn several heads near t

t smile, though her eyes gl

Camelia said, looking my plain black suit up and down. "What are you hoping to do

of me, his brows draw

dea where you are standing? Junior associates at Thornton & Partners bill twenty-five hundred dollars an hour

, my gaze sweeping past them toward the elevator bank. "Did Ha

flush creeping up his neck bef

announced, puffing out his chest so the surrounding lawyers could hear. "Camelia graduated with hono

e as if I were al

. Once he puts his seal on the Hatfield defense brief this morning, the Supr

on's name, my fingers paused lightly

t twenty-eight, he held an unbeaten record in federal antitrust and scent-equity trials, backed by a terrifying S-

e had personal connect

lifted her chin until the rubies at h

" Camelia whispered, leaning half a step closer. "If you get down on your knees right here on this marble floor and sign the e

the way one looks at clowns

you still standing by the umbrella rack?" I asked calm

melia hissed, her heel st

i

r reserved exclusively for the top-floor managing partne

n the three-story at

a white-haired man in his sixties wearing gold-rimmed spectacles and a conservative na

houldered young man who looked as if he

re a cold, matte steel-blue wrist band locked at Level V over his left cuff. Beneath dark, sharply sculpt