" I built this empire myself, Ellen," Thomas said, his gravelly baritone low, smooth, and absolute. " And I choose who stands beside me. Your presence here is a distraction."
Ellen's smile faltered for a fraction of a second, a flicker of sharp frustration crossing her features, before her polished facade snapped back into place. " Is it really a distraction, Thomas? Or are you just trying to protect someone from the past?"
While Thomas maintained his unyielding wall of ice in the lounge, Ellen's sharp intellect was already working behind the scenes. She hadn't earned her reputation as the " Iron Falcon" merely by looking pretty in boardrooms; her mind was a razor-sharp trap, constantly analyzing anomalies.
An hour earlier, before stepping into the VIP lounge, Ellen had taken a delibera
