Ava Langston didn’t waste time.
Two days after the gala, Liam met her in the private suite of the Langston building. The view was immaculate. The wine older than most marriages. And the atmosphere? Predatory.
“Montgomery’s crumbling,” Ava said, lounging like a queen in velvet. “But you’re not just destroying them. You’re... dissecting them. I like that.”
Liam didn’t smile. “I don’t play games.”
“Sure you do,” she purred, pouring him a glass. “But you’re good at pretending you don’t.”
They toasted, and she slid a file toward him.
It was a merger proposal. Marrow & Slate had inside leverage on one of Montgomery’s foreign logistics hubs — a weak spot Liam hadn’t targeted yet.
“You help me crush their export line,” she said. “And I’ll make you richer than any Hawthorne in history.”
He
