The man who had been holding me hostage took an involuntary step back, his professional composure shattering into a mosaic of confusion and fear. Julian’s hired muscle was accustomed to being the alpha predators in any room. They were not prepared for a tier of power that made them look like security guards at a suburban mall.
The man in the center, Alexander, finally moved his gaze from me to Julian. It was a slow, deliberate act, and in that glacial shift, the entire power dynamic of the room inverted.
“Julian Vance,” Alexander said. His voice was not loud, but it possessed a strange acoustic property, cutting through the low hum of the servers to land with the weight of a judicial sentence. “My name is Alexander Thorne. I am the CEO of Apex Capital.”
Julian’s face cycled through a se
