Chapter 203 The Clean Sweep

• The ballroom smelled like greed and expensive cologne.
• Ellerei stood at the center of it, masked, poised, the perfect storm disguised as a neutral broker. Her heels clicked a lazy rhythm as she moved from bidder to bidder, each motion calculated—just enough for them to think they could read her, just enough mystery to make them pay for the privilege.
• Knox was on the perimeter, dark suit, darker eyes, every inch the man no one dared to bump into. Bishop’s signal in his ear was a steady metronome of updates—guest list locked, cameras mine, exits sealed. Decker was already mingling in the crowd, drink in hand, laughing too loudly at bad jokes, the kind of noise that made him forgettable to everyone except the people he wanted to remember him.