oom to a stifling, punishing temperature. Kendall woke with a sharp, unnatural th
is fingers brushed against a dull, tender point where the ne
ive mattress was empty. The
serted. Nothing left behind but the faint, lingering scent of c
paper fluttered from his foreh
ick words burned into his retinas like a b
rehead pulsed visibly, a thick b
ow and dangerous. His fingers curled inward, cru
crypted phone from the nightstand. He neede
n breaking news alerts flooded the d
from TMZ. A picture of his own scr
. The word jumped ou
d to ice. His reflection in the black screen of the
sistant, Chancey Fisch
ethal it sounded demonic, a growl scraped from the bottom of his chest. "And take over the hot
d his white dress shirt from the floor and shoved his
d stared down at the tiny cars crawling through
wore to himself, right then, that he would te
shed in, wiping sweat from his forehead with a crumpled tiss
servers were physically wiped at 6:00 AM by a top-tier hacker. There is n
his chest twisted into something else-something darker, shar
nce network," Kendall commanded, his voice ha
o blocks away had caught a grainy glimpse of her face-thos
ing as he read from his tablet. "Public records and social media chatter show she violently broke her engagemen
more dangerous and focused. "Dig deeper. I want to know everything s
urned. His face was pale, the
her name early this morning. It seems she strong-armed her own father and stole a core formula. And..." He paused, his hands shaking slightly as he handed the
e information. Three hours. She wa
slammed it directly into t
m that resonated through the entire room. Blood blo
completely black, burning w
, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper
/1/114990/coverbig.jpg?v=aad87a4fe4780e368a8e29897db35e24&imageMogr2/format/webp)