Jade Cabral strides into the 21st century as a golden guy. Brilliant and beautiful, with a California cool and a Harvard education, he is poised for wealth and success in New York’s Financial District.<br><br>But Jade harbors a secret flaw, a thirst for revenge against Se?or Rodriguez, the California landowner who deprived his father – Se?or’s out-of-wedlock son, John Virgil -- of his family’s rightful inheritance and place in the world. Jade thinks if he succeeds in New York, he can make up for every loss and humiliation his family has endured at the hands of Se?or. That searing quest leads him into the arms of Nan Spencer, a lovely, fragile socialite, and to the top of the financial world, the Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001.

Seamless Sky

Death, he understood at last, was the great enemy. Not Ken Doll or Se?or: They were amateurs. It was death that offered the greatest challenge. And death now was everywhere, waiting for him at every turn.


He tried to reenter the lobby, only to encounter a young woman whose face mirrored his own revulsion. She stepped back, Eurydice in the shadows. But he pulled her toward him.


“You can,” Jade said. “You can and you will. Otherwise, you’ll die here with all of them. And we’re not going to die, you and I. Not now. Not today.”


He had lost sight of Lowell and the others. He hoped they were thinking of what he was—getting the hell out of there. At the moment—and he hated to admit it—he didn’t care. All he knew was that he was going forward, and he was going to take this shrieking woman with him, even if he had to carry her.


He stepped as gingerly as he could, trying not to look around.


Chapter 25