The Iron Vow

Dominic Vale didn't sit down immediately.

He stood there, studying my wet hair, the ruined hem of my dress, and the pale skin of my knuckles where I was still gripping my glass.

“You’re Avery Bennett,” he said.

My head snapped up.

“How do you know my name?”

“You audited three logistics subsidiaries connected to my port operations last November,” Dominic pulled out the chair opposite mine and lowered himself into it with unhurried precision. “You found a four-hundred-thousand-dollar discrepancy in offshore maintenance routing that my own accountants missed.”

“You kept two sets of books,” I said, my professional instincts kicking in even through the haze of shock and alcohol. “One for the tax board, one for the docks.”

“Every man with a shipyard does,” Dominic said, a faint, humorless smirk touching the corner of his mouth. “The difference is, you didn't blackmail me. You didn't leak it to the press. You filed a cold, mathematical correction and walked out without looking back.”

I took another slow sip of bourbon.

“I had other things on my mind that day.”

“Yes,” Dominic said softly. “You were planning a wedding to a junior partner at a real estate firm named Ethan Vance.”

My chest tightened.

“Past tense.”

“Is it?” Dominic tilted his head, his ice-gray eyes locking onto mine with terrifying clarity. “Because your phone has buzzed eleven times since you walked in here. I can hear the vibration against the wood.”

I pulled the phone from my purse.

Screen lit up.

Ethan: Ave, please. Let's talk.

Lila: I'm so sorry, please answer me.

Ethan: We can fix this.

I placed the phone face down on the sticky table.

“They want their lives back,” I whispered.

“No,” Dominic said. “They want their insurance policy back. Ethan’s firm just lost three major commercial accounts this afternoon. Without the Bennett family connection and the capital your marriage was bringing in, his partners are voting him out by Monday morning.”

I stared at him.

“You know a lot about my fiancé.”

“I know everything that happens in Greyhaven,” Dominic replied evenly. “And right now, I know a woman sitting in a dive bar at midnight who just realized her entire life was built on sand.”