Page 28 of King of Greed

“You’re not the only one with connections.” Roman straightened his jacket. He’d dressed up for the opening, but even in designer clothing, he exuded trouble. “We’re a long way from Whittlesburg, aren’t we?”

My jaw clenched, his presence and the mention of our hometown unearthing memories that were better left buried.

“We’ll both make it out of here one day.” Roman’s eyes glinted with a stony determination that belonged to someone older than his fourteen years. A dark bruise marred his face from where our foster mom had hit him. “And when we do, everyone will pay.”

Roman and I had been foster siblings in my fourth home. He was only a year younger than me, and he’d been the closest thing Ihad to an ally in that hellhole until he fell in with the wrong crowd and landed in juvie for arson my senior year of high school. I’d refused to provide him with a fake alibi; I’d just been accepted to Thayer, and I couldn’t risk upending my future over someone else’s criminal offense. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

Until last night.

“Don’t worry. I won’t touch your precious wife. I simply wanted to say hi even if I shouldn’t.” The flash of earlier emotion resurfaced and disappeared as quickly as before. “If you don’t want people to find you, you shouldn’t splash your face all over theWall Street Journaland society papers.” Roman brushed past me. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a dinner party to return to.”

He made it to the end of the hall before I spoke.

“Tell me you’re not in trouble again.” I shouldn’t care. We’d cut ties long ago, but a small part of me couldn’t shake off my guilt over leaving him in Ohio. He’d made his choices, and I’d made mine, but once upon a time, he’d been the only real family I had.

Roman stopped, his frame falling so still he resembled a statue backlit by the restaurant lights.

“Don’t act like you care,” he said. “It doesn’t suit you.”

The first half of dinner passed without incident, but I barely tasted my food. I was too distracted both by Alessandra, who sat at one end of the table, and Roman, who sat at the other.

He was up to something. He had to be, and my suspicions only grew after Sebastian admitted he didn’t know him personally. Someone on his team had sent Roman the invite.

Meanwhile, Alessandra was doing her best to pretend I didn’t exist, though I caught her looking at me a few times when she thought I wasn’t paying attention. It should’ve made me feel better. Instead, her proximity to Roman, who was smart enough to detectand exploit the tension between us, made me want to leave dinner and drag her with me to safety, etiquette be damned.

“Stop staring,” Dante said without looking at me. “You’re about as subtle as a sledgehammer.”

“Look who’s talking.” He was infamous for his heavy-handed tactics when it came to punishing people who’d crossed him. Broken bones, comas, the whole shebang.

Nevertheless, I tore my eyes away from where Alessandra was laughing with Vivian and Isabella. We needed to talk about what happened at the bar, which would be easier if I could actually get her alone. I only came tonight to see her, but her friends were like bodyguards who refused to leave her side. I should—

A loud clatter broke through the hum of conversation, followed by a fit of choking and wheezing. It cut off abruptly, and the dining room quieted as I jerked my head toward the previous commotion.

One of the guests had collapsed face down in his plate. Blue suit, distinctive silver hair. Martin Wellgrew, the CEO of Orion Bank.

Sebastian was out of his seat in a flash. “What happened?” he demanded.

“I don’t know. We were talking and then he…he just collapsed,” the woman sitting next to Martin stuttered. “Is he okay? He’s not moving. Oh God…what if…”

I could hear a pin drop while Sebastian checked Martin’s pulse. He sucked in a breath, and I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“He’s dead.”

There was a moment of stunned silence before pandemonium erupted. Half the guests rushed for the exit while the other half ran to the restrooms, presumably in case the food had caused Martin’s sudden death. They nearly trampled each other in their haste, andI lost sight of my friends in the mayhem. However, I was only interested in finding one person.

Alessandra.

I pushed through the crowd, my heart ricocheting in my chest. A familiar buzz drowned out the mounting hysteria in the room. I didn’t know what happened with Martin, but I needed to see her and make sure she was okay. She could be hurt, trampled, unconscious…

The buzz sawed through my head with high-pitched frequency. Fuck, why was it so hot in here?

Sweat slicked my palms as I searched for brown hair and a red dress.Come on, baby, where are you?

The restaurant was small, and it was chaos as I tried to sort through the crush of people.

Black hair. Black dress. Gray hair. Navy suit. The guests blurred into a generic entity. Someone bumped into me, and I was about to push them off when I looked down and a familiar pair of blue-gray eyes met mine.

Relief knocked the breath out of my lungs.She’s okay.

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