Chaos Ahead

The library was dead quiet, the kind of silence that made every cough or shuffled page feel like a sin. Parker sat slouched in one of the back chairs, his phone pressed to his ear and his face set in that bored, almost-too-cool expression he always wore. Far from him, Naomi was flipping through some massive hardcover like her life depended on it, oblivious to everything else.

"…And that's where things stand," Cassidy said on the other end of the line, her voice calm but carrying that edge of cocky confidence she always had. "Figured I'd save the best for last." She paused for effect, then dropped the bomb. "Blackwood Co. investors are in full-on panic mode. By this time tomorrow, I'll have started buying, and in three days? Fifty-three percent of the company's ours."