Storm the Gates (A Knight's Revenge #1)

by Elizabeth Dear

The last thing I saw before they disappeared was the fluttering open of Jolie’s eyes, her striking aquamarine stare meeting mine for a fraction of a second and boring straight into my soul, before her lids fell shut again as she vanished out the door and out of our lives forever.

Spencer was the white-collar empire, controlling the banks, hedge funds, investment brokers, credit companies, and the largest law firm in the City—with James Spencer, Esquire as managing partner. What the public at large did not know about the Spencer Family was its many less-than-legal activities. We suspected their involvement in all manner of things like fraud, money laundering, gambling, and insider trading.

Ferrero controlled the entertainment industry—bars, hotels, restaurants, concert venues, and clubs of all kinds. The Ferrero’s other enterprises were lesser known, involving—that we knew of—illegal fights, weapons trafficking, and procuring all kinds of stolen shit for rich buyers, like priceless artifacts that belonged in a museum.

The Hargraves empire was in healthcare—hospitals, insurance companies, medical tech, wellness centers, even gyms. You couldn’t spend a dollar on a Band-Aid in the City without eighty cents going into a Hargraves pocket. And of course, because one didn’t maintain the wealth and power of one of the Four Families without a lucrative criminal side gig, Hargraves appeared to have its hands in the drug trade. Prescription pills, coke, heroine, you name it—if it was sold or consumed in this City, Hargraves profited.

Knight owned or had a stake in dozens of booming tech companies—computers, phones, software, apps, even electric cars.