Chapter 1 - The Mother in Black
“Touch her again.”
Sarah Thorne’s boot drove into the Sterling heir’s lower torso before he could close his hand around Maya’s limp arm.
He stumbled backward into a row of gilded chairs.
Metal legs scraped across marble.
Maya’s red clutch slipped from his hand and struck the floor.
Sarah never loosened her hold on her daughter.
One arm remained behind Maya’s back. The other supported her beneath the knees.
Maya’s glittering red gown hung over Sarah’s black tactical vest, red fabric against armored black.
Guests lining the floral aisle recoiled.
Several private security men were already conscious but unable to rise after attempting to stop Sarah near the ballroom entrance.
Behind her, Elias Vance pointed with the rigid authority of a man who had spent decades being obeyed.
“You have no idea who we are.”
Sarah turned her head toward the security camera above the main arch.
She pressed one button on her vest.
The two guards advancing toward her stopped as a tone sounded in their earpieces.
Their expressions changed.
They had received an order that did not come from Elias.
Sarah lowered Maya carefully against one knee, reached for Elias’s titanium briefcase, and kicked it open.
Bundles of cash spilled into view beside a sealed dark folder.
Guests raised their phones.
Elias’s hand dropped.
Sarah looked at him.
“You paid the wrong mother.”
Maya’s fingers tightened weakly around Sarah’s vest.
“The lining,” she whispered.
The Sterling heir lunged toward the fallen clutch.
Sarah blocked him with one hard shoulder check.
She tore open the loose inner seam and removed a tiny black storage device.
Elias looked toward a man retreating near the rear exit.
Sarah noticed.
“Who else was in that room?”
The ballroom doors locked.
The chandeliers dimmed.
Elias stared at the device.
“That file was destroyed.”
Then a light began blinking inside the Sterling heir’s silver gala pin.
Sarah’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
She lifted Maya again and asked the question that turned the ballroom silent.
“Who activated Blackout first?”
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