Julian smiled, tasting victory. He had cornered Victoria in the dim antechamber, the backhand he’d just delivered leaving a thin ribbon of crimson trailing down her chin.
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she pressed her phone to her ear, her eyes dead-locked on his.
“Dad, lock every exit,” she commanded, her voice like cracking ice. “Let no one leave.”
Julian threw his head back, a cruel, echoing laugh tearing from his throat. “Waiting for a savior?” he sneered, his tone arrogant and fast. “You are alone!”
He turned his back on her, strutting toward the gold-trimmed double doors to rejoin his kingdom. He shoved them wide, stepping onto the cold, checkered tiles of the blindingly bright grand foyer.
Then, his breath caught.
The room was utterly silent.
Dozens of the city’s most ruthless elites—the judges, the tycoons, the senators—were dead still. Not shocked. *Paralyzed.* They stood like wax sculptures in mid-sip and mid-laugh, their eyes darting in silent, suffocating panic.
The vintage champagne. The toast Julian had sponsored.
Julian spun around, violently pulling at the brass handles of the doors behind him. Sealed. “What did you do?!” he screamed, his aristocratic mask shattering into pure panic. “Open it!”
The chandeliers abruptly cut out. A single, piercing spotlight snapped on.
Victoria stood in the dead center of the room, having shed her blazer for a plunging black evening gown. She glided through the perimeter of frozen billionaires, her gaze pinning Julian to the wall.
“These doors are not to keep danger out,” she said smoothly. “They keep you in.”
Julian’s knees buckled as the neurotoxin finally hit his bloodstream. He collapsed against the marble, completely immobilized, as Victoria leaned in, their faces mere inches apart.
Her “Dad”—the syndicate boss Julian had assassinated a decade ago—wasn’t on the phone. She had just triggered the building’s lockdown protocol using his archived voice-key. Tonight was an execution, and Julian had paid for the catering.
Sweat poured down his face. His eyes bulged in terror as Victoria held his gaze, her lips parting to reveal a blood-stained, ruthless smile.
“You are the prey now.”