Chapter 19 - Checkmate in Mayfair
The ballroom of the Dorchester Hotel was a sea of glittering chandeliers and London’s elite.
Julian Thorne stood near the grand staircase, nursing a scotch, his face pale and sweating despite the cool air conditioning.
When Graham and Elise entered, the room seemed to naturally part for them. They moved with terrifying synchronicity, an apex predator power couple that immediately commanded the gravity of the room.
They walked directly up to Thorne.
“Graham,” Thorne choked out, looking frantically around for his security detail.
“They aren’t coming, Julian,” Elise stated calmly, stopping a mere foot away from him. “Your fixers abandoned you the second they realized your bank accounts were frozen. Loyalty is expensive.”
Graham produced a folded legal document from his tuxedo pocket and handed it to Thorne.
“Transfer of ownership,” Graham said. “You’re stepping down immediately due to ‘health reasons.’ Bastion Arc is acquiring Kensington Dynamics for ten cents on the dollar.”
Thorne stared at the paper, his hands trembling. “And if I refuse?”
“Then the encrypted drive goes to MI5,” Elise replied, her tone conversational but lethal. “And you spend the rest of your life in Belmarsh prison for treason.”
May you like
Thorne looked between the billionaire who could crush him financially and the brilliant woman who had already crushed him digitally.
With a shaking hand, he pulled a gold pen from his pocket—the same pen he had tapped so arrogantly yesterday—and signed the document.
