The storm was scheduled for three days out, and it was going to arrive in a marble sales gallery, in front of an audience, exactly as I had designed.

Chapter 15 — The Sales Gallery

Seventy-two hours later, I was in my new glass-walled apartment downtown, drinking hot coffee in a square of weekend sun on the hardwood floor.

Miles away, the trap I had set was about to spring.

The Grandview Estates sales office was built to radiate luxury — fresh cedar, expensive perfume, soft lighting engineered to make eight-million-dollar decisions feel effortless.

At ten in the morning, a black sedan pulled up to the entrance.