Chapter 1 - THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR The mansion on Beacon Hill was supposed to be silent after midnight.
Instead, the rain hammered against its enormous leaded-glass windows, turning the Charles River beyond them into a restless sheet of black silver.
Harper Queen stood barefoot on cold marble, clutching her maid's uniform against her chest.
She had chosen Gabriel Ashford's private bathroom because nobody came there.
Nobody except Gabriel himself.
Her back was reflected in the enormous mirror.
Purple bruises crossed her ribs.
Yellowing fingerprints circled her upper arm.
A dark mark disappeared beneath her collarbone.
Harper stared at her reflection and barely recognized the woman looking back.
Three years ago, she had been a nursing student who believed she could save people.
Then she married Derek Lawson.
A police detective.
A respected officer.
A man everyone trusted.
Everyone except the woman who knew what happened behind closed doors.
Harper reached for the medical tape.
Her hands were shaking.
She had just begun wrapping her ribs when the bathroom door opened.
She froze.
Gabriel Ashford stood in the doorway.
Thirty-two.
Tall.
Impossibly controlled.
His charcoal suit was torn at the shoulder, and blood dripped from his knuckles onto the white marble.
His eyes moved from her face...
to the bruises on her back.
He said nothing.
That silence frightened her more than shouting ever could.
"You're bleeding on my floor," he finally said.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ashford."
"Who did that?"
Harper swallowed.
"Nobody."
His expression changed almost imperceptibly.
"People don't accidentally leave fingerprints around the ribs."
Her heart stopped.
Gabriel stepped closer.
Harper instinctively backed away.
He stopped immediately.
Then he said something she had never heard from a powerful man before.
"You don't have to be afraid of me."
Harper almost laughed.
May you like
Because she had spent three years being afraid of men.
And somehow, the most dangerous man in Boston was the first one who had noticed.
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