Chapter 10 · No Luna Deal

The courthouse doors hit the wall behind us before I even got my coat zipped.

"Don't walk away from me, Avery." Cade's hand closed around my elbow, not hard, but not letting go either. "Not after what just happened in there."

"What just happened," I said, yanking free, "is a judge telling you that you don't get to threaten me with lawyers in a hallway. Let go."

He didn't. His jaw was doing that thing, tight, ticking, like he was chewing on words he didn't want to say in public.

Then I saw the cameras.

Three of them. Steps below us, aimed up like we were the show. And behind the cameras, a woman in a cream coat I recognized from a magazine spread I never asked to see — Persia Voss, the fund's golden girl, the one his mother had been dangling in front of every gala invite for two years.

"Cade." Persia's voice carried. "You're late for the announcement."

"There's no announcement," Cade said.

"There's a contract." A man stepped up beside her, silver-haired, folder in hand, the kind of folder that costs more per page than my rent. "Signed by your father. Witnessed by the council.