were meeting for the first time.
“Thane Alexander Devereux,” he said.
“CEO, censured executive, and grandson of a man who owed your father the truth.”
Mara looked at his hand.
Once, she had recognized it before she understood the man attached to it.
Now she understood both the damage it had caused and the documents it had helped uncover.
She took it briefly.
“Mara Elise Vale,” she replied.
“Shareholder, compliance director, and daughter of the man your company will never erase again.”
He released her first.
“Do you still prefer calling me Dev?”
Mara considered the question that had once sounded like a threat inside his glass office.
“No,” she said.
“Dev was a secret.”
Then she looked directly into his eyes.
“You can earn Thane.”
