CHAPTER 1 — The Girl Everyone Was Willing to Kill
Nobody in Chicago understood why the most feared man in the city suddenly ordered every bridge, tunnel, and highway locked down.
They only knew one thing.
His daughter had disappeared.
And people were already dying because of it.
Juliet Mason had no idea the tiny girl sleeping on her couch was worth more than some countries' annual budgets.
She only knew Ivy was terrified.
When the apartment door burst open, Juliet tightened both hands around the cast-iron skillet.
The suited stranger looked like someone carved from stone.
Tall.
Perfectly dressed.
Emotionless.
His right hand remained inside his jacket.
One wrong movement...
...and Juliet believed she would never see another sunrise.
"Step away from the child."
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
It carried the quiet certainty of a man who had never heard the word no.
Juliet refused.
"I don't know who you are."
The man's eyes narrowed.
"I know exactly who you are."
Her stomach tightened.
How?
"I've done nothing."
"No."
His gaze never left Ivy.
"You've done something nobody else managed."
Before anyone moved—
Ivy screamed.
"DADDY!"
She ran past Juliet and threw herself into the stranger's arms.
The impossible happened.
The man's cold face shattered.
He dropped to one knee.
Wrapped both arms around the little girl.
His entire body trembled.
Every bodyguard looked away.
Because none of them had ever seen Maxwell Buchanan cry.
Not once.
Not after wars.
Not after prison.
Not after burying his wife.
Only now.
Holding his daughter.
"I thought..."
His voice broke.
"I thought I'd lost you."
Ivy buried her face against his neck.
"They were scary."
"I know."
"They hurt my arms."
"I know."
"They said you'd give them money."
Maxwell closed his eyes.
Every word became another name added to a death list.
Juliet watched in stunned silence.
The newspapers called Maxwell Buchanan a monster.
Yet the man holding his daughter looked like nothing more than a broken father.
Then Maxwell stood.
His expression became unreadable again.
"You saved my daughter."
Juliet nodded carefully.
"I just couldn't leave her."
"No."
He studied her tiny apartment.
The peeling wallpaper.
The empty refrigerator.
The unpaid bills stacked beside the sink.
"You could have sold her."
Juliet stared.
"What?"
"The reward for information about Ivy reached twenty-five million dollars."
Her heart nearly stopped.
Twenty-five...
Million?
She hadn't even possessed twenty-five hundred dollars in months.
Maxwell continued.
"You never called."
"I wasn't thinking about money."
"You weren't thinking about survival either."
Silence.
Then Maxwell did something none of his men expected.
He bowed his head.
Not much.
Barely an inch.
But enough.
The most feared man in Chicago...
...thanked a waitress.
"I owe you my daughter's life."
Juliet smiled weakly.
"You don't owe me anything."
Every bodyguard exchanged nervous glances.
Nobody refused favors from Maxwell Buchanan.
Nobody.
Because favors from men like him always came with consequences.
Juliet didn't know it yet.
Saving Ivy hadn't ended her nightmare.
It had only introduced her to it.
Outside the apartment...
A sniper watched through a thermal scope.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
May you like
The little girl wasn't his target anymore.
Juliet was.
