Zach’s voice left the room like a cliff falling away. “Get the guards. Lock every f*****g exit. Nobody leaves. Not the maids, not the guards, and definitely not those two little bitches upstairs.”
The house swallowed the word, quiet for a breath ... the kind of silence that hums before a storm.
Then the window shattered.
Glass exploded inward like rain. A shadow folded through the dark, landing with the soft, lethal calm of someone who’s done this a thousand times.
The royal detective dropped to one knee, boots whispering on the polished floor. He straightened, a winded grin cutting across his face as if he’d just walked in from a promenade instead of a forced entry.
His coat was scuffed, his hair slick with rain; his eyes were cold iron. He looked like trouble dressed in manners.
“
