Where is it, Arthur?"
The voice was quiet, but it cut through my father's sobbing like a knife.
I stood frozen at the top of the stairs. My heart hammered against my ribs as I looked down at the ruin of our front hall. The heavy oak door was hanging off its hinges. Four men in dark suits stood like statues near the walls, their hands resting on the holsters at their hips.
In the middle of the room stood Silas Vane.
He didn't look like a criminal. He looked like a king. He was leaning against my father's mahogany desk, casually checking his watch. He looked bored, as if breaking into our home was just another chore on his to-do list.
"I... I don't have it yet, Silas. Please," my father gasped. He was on his knees, his face bruised and bloody. Two of Silas's men held him down by his shoulders. "The accounts are frozen. Give me two days. Just forty-eight hours."
Silas finally looked up. His eyes were cold and empty. "Forty million dollars doesn't just disappear, Arthur. You stole from the Syndicate. You sat at my table, you drank my wine, and then you robbed me blind."
Silas stood up and pulled a small, silver pocketknife from his vest. He flipped it open with a sharp click.
"Wait!"
I didn't think. I just ran. I flew down the stairs, my red silk dress catching the air, and threw myself in front of my father. I could feel the tiny red laser dots from the snipers outside dancing across my chest, but I didn't move.
Silas stopped. A slow, dark smile touched his lips. "Ah. The daughter. Elara. I wondered when you'd show up."
"Let him go," I said. My voice shook, but I kept my chin up. "If you kill him, you get a body and a mess. You don't get your forty million back. Is your pride worth that much money?"
Silas closed the knife. "True. But dead men are very good at making sure nobody else tries to steal from me."
"I have a better way to keep people honest." I stepped closer to him, close enough to smell the expensive sandalwood on his skin. "My father is a fool, but I'm the one who actually knows how to move that money. You want your vault to be safe? You want your millions back? You need me."
Silas towered over me. He reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look into his dark eyes. "You're offering to work off a forty-million-dollar debt? That's a long life of service, Elara."
"I'm offering a contract." I lowered my voice so my father wouldn't hear me sell my soul. "Marry me. Make me a Vane. I'll fix your security, I'll track your enemies, and I'll stay in your house as your prisoner until every cent is paid. My life for his."
The room went silent. My father let out a broken groan, but Silas didn't take his eyes off me. He was looking for a crack in my mask. He didn't find one.
"You'd marry a monster to save a thief?" he whispered.
"I'd marry the devil to keep my family alive," I shot back.
Silas laughed then—a dark, chilling sound. He let go of my face and looked at his men. "Let the old man up. Take him to a doctor."
Then he turned to me, his gaze heavy and predatory. "You have thirty seconds to get into the black SUV outside, Elara. If that door closes and you aren't in it, I go back to the knife. If you are... well, I hope you like the color black. We have a wedding to plan."
I didn't look back. I didn't say goodbye. I walked out the door and stepped into the back of the car. As the heavy door clicked shut and the locks engaged, I knew my life was over. I had saved my father, but I had just walked into a cage with a beast.