Ace Kane allowed himself only three days of respite in the familiar, quiet luxury of his home before the grinding gears of ambition and the necessity of the coming land bid forced him back into action. The weight of the infinity-limit card in his pocket was a silent, heavy reminder of the power he now wielded—a power that required a much larger stage than Crown City. He had invited Lora Hale to accompany him to the State Capital, hoping for a few days where they could balance corporate warfare with personal intimacy. However, Lora was currently a woman possessed by a different kind of hunger. She was deep in the throes of her apprenticeship under Lucas Harrington, obsessively learning the nuances of logistical surveyed data and the brutal calculus of boardroom politics. With other departme
