The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Patrick’s limbs were beyond his control, his body betraying him as he followed Vivienne’s retreating steps.

Behind him, Gillian’s heart-wrenching cries for her father echoed through the air, but he was powerless to respond.

Patrick finally felt the command of his body returned when they reached a secluded cabin on the ship.

But now, with both Percival and Anna guarding the door, escape was an impossibility.

“Kneel,” Vivienne commanded, her voice serene as she sat on the seat representing authority.

Patrick fell to his knees with a thud, not out of compulsion but from the sheer force of Vivienne’s presence.

His legs tingled with numbness, sharp pains shooting through his knees as if a thousand needles were pricking them.

Beads of sweat formed on his brow, trickling down his temples and disappearing onto his shoulders.

Vivienne sat with her legs crossed, her slender neck held high with disdain, a hint of scorn in her gaze.

As Patrick knelt, Vivienne wondered what her mother had seen in him. How could such a spineless man be entrusted with the critical technology of bionics?

She regarded him with contempt and curiosity, slowly pulling the small “Morning Glory” from her pocket and tossing it at Patrick.

Instinctively, he caught it, his forehead bulging with veins, paralyzed with fear.

When he saw what it was, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

He had thought she had thrown a knife at him!

“Madam, what is this?” he stammered.

Vivienne raised an eyebrow, her voice calm. “A miniature bomb.”

Shocked to his core, Patrick scrambled behind the couch for cover.

He thought it was a knife, but it was even worse – a bomb! Vivienne was more reckless than his boss.

Who in their right mind tosses a bomb around like a toy?

Observing Patrick’s reaction, Vivienne could almost be certain of his innocence regarding the bomb incident that evening.

legs shifting position as she lounged back

Even if we set aside your presence on the ship, my daughter and I were

murmured absentmindedly,

rise, “Could this be connected to

as she looked at

the engagement party fiasco, I cut all ties with the Boyd family. But for the sake of the bionic tech, I could not completely sever our relationship. I thought of sending an

told me the Boyd family’s head wanted to drop off a floral arrangement. I did not question it, but it’s suspicious now that I think about it. I had always dealt with Eliza, not

nodded, then a signal beeped in her earpiece—it was from

The shipment had arrived.

Patrick’s phone buzzed with a message. He wanted to check it but could not do so in front of Vivienne,

yawned, her eyes closing. “Let me

that, she

Vivienne was

had touched a nerve, and his pale excuses and baseless

grew increasingly anxious as his phone continued to

shipment had

Why bother messaging him?

the cabin and were now at the

sealing off all incoming

it—it’s Keco,” Thomas reported, handing over a bag of what

notorious new drug on the black market, identical to

brow furrowed.

glance with Leopold before revealing an astonishing

“Three tons.”

Anna gasped. “How much?”

“Three tons,” Thomas repeated.

could profit enough to buy a

had not imagined

Keco, we’ve found nothing else,”

virus research base, following leads to the Ashford

their chance to breach the base, so Leopold

Vivienne kept their eyes on Patrick’s movements from the ship’s cabin; each of his moves was a potential key to

their surprise, and instead of securing the experimental substance, they had

all people, was neck-deep in drug trafficking, a kingpin no

the experimental substance was a dead end by now. Three tons of Keco was no small find, and it demanded the intervention of the local Drug Enforcement

the DEA officers,” Percival instructed as he took the