chapter 1
Anna Winters looked at her phone on the subway. She only had $342 in her bank account. Not even enough for next month's rent! Her student loan payment would come out in three days too. She put her phone in her old purse with a big sigh.
"It's just for now," she told herself. She'd been saying that for three years. Just until her dad got better with money. Just until his new business worked. Just until...
The subway stopped and Anna got off with all the tired workers. But her day wasn't over yet. After working eight hours at the insurance office, she still had to work four hours at the coffee shop. Another long day to earn money that would disappear into her dad's bad business ideas.
Her phone buzzed as she walked up the subway stairs. It was her dad calling.
"Dad? What's wrong?" Anna asked right away. She could hear him breathing fast.
"Annie, you need to come home. Now." His voice cracked. She hadn't heard him sound like this since her mom's funeral seven years ago.
"I'm supposed to be at The Daily Grind in twenty minutes."
"Please, Anna." He sounded really scared. "It's important."
The call ended. Anna stood still on the busy sidewalk as people walked around her. Her dad Edward wasn't someone who got scared easily. He was always too happy and hopeful, which is why people kept giving him money for his businesses even though they always failed.
Anna texted her boss at the coffee shop about a family emergency. It wasn't really a lie.
Thirty minutes later, Anna opened the door to their small apartment. They used to live in a big house in the suburbs, before her mom's hospital bills and her dad's failed businesses made them move to smaller and smaller places.
"Dad?" she called as she came in.
She found him sitting at the kitchen table with his face in his hands. His empty glass smelled like whiskey—not a good sign. Her dad had stopped drinking after her mom died.
"Dad, what happened?"
When he looked up, his eyes were red and he looked messy. Anna felt scared. Her dad might be bad with money, too hopeful, and good at talking people into things—but he always, always looked nice and clean.
"I did something really bad, Annie," he said in a hollow voice.
Anna sat across from him, getting ready for bad news. Another failed business? Credit cards with her name on them? It wouldn't be the first time.
"Whatever it is, we'll figure it out," she said. She always said this when cleaning up his messes.
Edward shook his head. "Not this time." He pushed a paper across the table. "I borrowed money. A lot of money."
Anna read the paper quickly, her heart dropping as she saw the numbers. "Five million dollars? From who?" Her voice got louder. "And what did you use to get the loan?"
"Lucas Kane," her dad whispered.
The name hit Anna hard. Everyone knew Lucas Kane, the mean billionaire whose face was on business magazines every month. He was super rich and known for being smart but also very cruel to people who crossed him.
"The family property in Vermont," Edward said. "I told them we still owned it."
Anna's mind raced. "But we sold that property three years ago to pay Mom's final hospital bills."
Edward couldn't look at her. "I know."
Anna suddenly understood how bad this was. "You lied to Lucas Kane to get money?" Her voice was very quiet. "Dad, you could go to jail. Real jail."
"He found out," Edward said, tears running down his face. "His men came by this morning. I have two days to pay back the money or..." He stopped talking.
Anna's hands shook as she read the loan paper again. "This is from eight months ago. What did you even use all this money for?"
Her father's silence told her everything. Another plan, another dream, another failure.
"He's coming here tonight," Edward finally said. "Kane himself. He said..." His voice broke. "He said he might have another way to fix this."
Anna felt like all the blood left her face. Men like Lucas Kane didn't offer "other ways" to be nice. Whatever he wanted would cost them more than money.
"What time?" she asked, already walking to her bedroom.
"Eight o'clock."
Anna checked her watch: 6:45. Just enough time to shower and change, to face this scary man with some dignity.
In the shower, Anna let herself be scared for five minutes. Her father had done something really bad against one of the most powerful men in the country. No amount of charm or promises would fix this. Jail was the best thing that might happen; losing everything and being humiliated would definitely happen.
She put on her best work outfit: a simple blue dress she'd worn to job interviews and her mom's funeral. It wouldn't impress a billionaire, but it was clean and nice. Anna put her brown hair in a neat bun, put on a little makeup to hide how tired she looked, and got ready.
At exactly eight o'clock, someone knocked on their apartment door. Anna opened it, expecting a bunch of security guards and lawyers.
Instead, one man stood there. He was tall, with broad shoulders, wearing a suit that probably cost more than their rent. Pictures didn't show how intense Lucas Kane was in person, how cold his blue eyes were as they looked at her, how hard his jaw looked like someone who never knew what it was like to be hungry or desperate.
"Miss Winters?" His voice was deep and showed no feelings.
Anna stood up straighter. "Mr. Kane. Please come in."
She stepped aside, very aware of how shabby their apartment must look to a man who owned penthouses in three big cities. Lucas Kane moved very carefully, his eyes looking at everything, probably adding up how much it was all worth and thinking it wasn't much.
Behind her, she heard her father get up from the kitchen table, his chair making a scraping sound on the floor.
Lucas Kane turned toward the sound, his eyes narrowing slightly, like a wild animal finding its prey.
"Mr. Winters," he said, "I think we have business to finish."
