The threat arrived two days after the engagement announcement, slipped beneath Isla's office door sometime in the night, and was discovered by one of her clerks the following morning. No wax seal this time, no formal courier. Just a folded scrap of paper, the handwriting rushed and uneven.
*Marry him, and you become a target instead of a shield. Vantris doesn't forgive easily, and neither do the men who lost everything because of your meddling.*
Isla brought it to Mercer immediately, her composure carefully controlled though her hands weren't entirely steady as she set the note on his desk.
"This could be anyone," Mercer said, though his own pulse had quickened reading it. "Lien, still bitter about losing his position. Fletcher's scattered loyalists, still resentful about Hale's downfal
