The Chicago docks were shrouded in a pre-dawn mist, the air thick with the briny tang of Lake Michigan and the low rumble of cranes unloading cargo. Sayrn Sauns stood in the shadows of Daniel Isiah’s penthouse, her medical kit slung over her shoulder, her chestnut hair tucked under a dark cap. At twenty-eight, with her RN degree earned earlier this year, she was used to the high-pressure chaos of Chicago General’s ER, but today she was stepping into Daniel’s world—directly into the heart of his empire’s latest battle. After Rocco Varga’s chilling warning on the Magnificent Mile—“Watch your back”—and Daniel’s promise to confront his old mentor, Sayrn had insisted on being present, not as a bystander but as the medic who kept his men alive.
Daniel stood beside her, his broad frame tense und
