The Runaway Asset: Betraying My Billionaire Father

The Enforcer? Elodie repeated.

Sofia leaned in close, her lips brushing Elodie's ear.

Cassius Chaney. He works for the Randalls.

Sofia looked around nervously, as if saying his name might summon him.

He handles the problems that money cannot fix.

Elodie looked back down. Cassius Chaney.

The name unlocked a door in the back of her mind.

Flashback. Three years ago. New York.

Elodie was twenty. She was sneaking past her father's home office to get to the kitchen for a midnight snack. The heavy oak door was ajar.

She saw a young man standing opposite her father. He looked younger then, rougher around the edges, but the posture was identical. Shoulders back, spine like a steel rod.

Hazen was handing him a thick manila envelope.

Keep the Vegas problem quiet, Hazen had said.

The young man had taken the envelope. He turned to leave. He saw Elodie standing in the hallway, clutching a bag of pretzels.

He didn't say a word. He didn't apologize for being seen. He just winked at her. A cold, knowing wink. And walked past her.

Back in the present, Elodie gripped the railing.

It was him. The man her father paid to bury his secrets.

Her heart began to race. Not from fear, but from opportunity.

If Cassius Chaney handled Hazen's dirty work in Vegas, then Cassius Chaney knew about the trust fund. He might know about Joshuah.

Fate had just dropped the key to her freedom in her lap.

But he was dangerous. Sofia was terrified of him.

Elodie looked at the stairs leading down to the pit. She thought about Kade. She thought about being an "asset."

She made a choice.

I need to talk to him, Elodie said.

Sofia grabbed her arm. Are you crazy? He eats girls like you for breakfast.

I am not hungry, Elodie quips. The adrenaline was masking the fear.

She pulled her arm from Sofia's grip.

She walked toward the stairs. She checked her reflection in a glass pane on the wall. The sequins glittered. Her lipstick was red. She looked like a Vegas party girl.

Perfect camouflage.