Chapter 37
The first of the three days ended without movement.
I used the hours to tighten every position I could reach. Rylan shifted two more mid-level accounts under direct control. A pair of fence line supervisors who had been loyal to my father accepted new terms that bound them to me instead. None of it was dramatic. All of it mattered. If the worst came and Thorne began dismantling what I had built, I needed the most important pieces already beyond his easy reach.
It still did not feel like enough.
Lila came into the study after nightfall and set a closed folder on the desk.
“That is the latest from the city search,” she said. “Still nothing solid. One possible sighting near a bookstore district that led to nowhere. One hospital clerk who thought she remembered a woman matching
