Elena's POV
"You're being paranoid."
I said it out loud to my empty apartment, laptop glowing against the dark, and didn't believe myself even a little. Victor's voice kept looping through my head … *I don't think you're here by accident* … twisting tighter with every replay, until I'd abandoned any pretense of eating dinner and pulled my laptop onto the couch instead, desperate to turn fear into something I could actually act on.
If he knew about the fire, knew about my father, knew enough to dangle it in front of me like bait, then the only defense I had left was understanding exactly what he was protecting. I opened a new search window and started where I'd left off weeks ago, cross-referencing Ashwood Capital Partners against every name I could find tied to Victor Kane.
It took lon
