The boardroom of Garrett Automotive had never felt so small.

Reed stood at the far end of the polished obsidian table, watching his father sign away another twenty-three percent of the company to Blackwood Holdings. Marcus’s pen moved with mechanical precision, the ink glowing faintly crimson before it dried to ordinary black. Every director present had the same hollow gleam in their eyes, the same faint smell of brimstone clinging to their thousand-dollar ...