Novels by Whitney Drake

The performance began the moment the elevator doors opened.Not on a stage.Not beneath spotlights.Not with music swelling in the background.It began with a hundred powerful people turning their attention toward me and seeing exactly what Luca wanted them to see.His future wife.The queen of New Zenith.The woman who inspired an entire city.And God help me, I played the role beautifully.Luca kept one hand at the small of my back as he guided me through Euphoria's grand opening gala, introducing me to governors, investors, celebrities, hotel executives, and business leaders whose names I recognized from newspapers and television interviews. Every single one of them congratulated us. Every single one of them admired the ring on my finger. Every single one of them treated me as though I had always belonged in rooms like these.Perhaps the most dangerous thing about Luca Moretti was that he made impossible dreams feel ordinary.Because this was everything I had wanted as a little gir

The diamond caught the light from a hundred crystal chandeliers and scattered it across the polished marble floor like fragments of starlight, and still I couldn't bring myself to move.Or breathe.Or think.The weight of the ring on my finger felt impossibly real.Luca stood before me with the patience of a man who had already learned that some moments could not be rushed, his dark eyes fixed entirely upon my face as he waited for an answer I wasn't certain I knew how to give.Around us, Euphoria pulsed softly with life.Staff moved through the grand halls making final preparations.Musicians tuned instruments somewhere beyond the ballroom doors.The first helicopters carrying investors and dignitaries would begin arriving within the hour.And I stood inside a temple built in my image, wearing an engagement ring from the most powerful man in Nevada.The absurdity of my life had officially surpassed anything I could have imagined.My voice emerged as little more than a whisper."You'r

The weeks that followed passed with the strange, dreamlike quality of a life moving too quickly to fully understand.One moment I was sneaking through Luca's office and stealing evidence that could potentially destroy everything between us, and the next I was standing in front of a mirror while a team of stylists prepared me for the grand opening gala of an entirely new city.New Zenith existed now.Not on blueprints.Not in presentations.Not as one of Luca's impossible promises.It stood in the Nevada desert in glass and steel and gold.And somehow, against every ounce of common sense I possessed, I was meant to stand beside him as its future queen.The thought still felt ridiculous.More ridiculous, however, was everything I had learned about Don D'Caputo.I had spent the past month digging.Carefully.Quietly.Never enough to attract attention, but enough to satisfy the growing suspicion that had settled into the back of my mind ever since I discovered the footage in Luca's office

I stood perfectly still.The office around me suddenly felt enormous.Luca had walked out as though he had merely finished an ordinary business conversation, leaving behind a confession of love, a wedding date, the promise of freedom, and enough unanswered questions to keep me awake for the rest of my life.And now I was alone.Completely alone.The realization settled over me slowly.No Brian.No assistants.No security detail stationed outside the door.Just me and the private sanctuary of the most powerful man in Las Vegas.My pulse quickened.If proof existed...If there was anything that connected Luca Moretti to Don D'Caputo's death...This might be my only opportunity to find it.I moved carefully.The massive desk occupied the center of the room, carved from dark wood that looked expensive enough to purchase a small house, yet somehow free of clutter despite the empire that Luca managed from behind it. Everything had its place. Every pen sat perfectly aligned. Every document r

The world beyond Luca's office window had changed forever in the span of a few seconds.A tower that had existed moments earlier was now nothing more than smoke and dust rising into the Nevada sky, its steel skeleton swallowed by a cloud that seemed almost unreal from this distance, and I stood frozen beside him with my hand still trapped in his as my mind desperately tried to catch up with what my eyes had just witnessed.My heartbeat thundered against my ribs.The desert remained silent.Las Vegas continued sparkling behind us.And Luca Moretti looked utterly at peace.I slowly turned toward him."What..."The word barely emerged."What did you just do?"He finally looked away from the window.The expression on his face wasn't cruel.That would have been easier to understand.It wasn't angry.It wasn't triumphant.If anything, he looked thoughtful.Calm.The same expression a man might wear after deciding to rearrange furniture in his living room."The building was scheduled for dem

The crowd that had begun gathering around us continued to grow with every passing second, drawn by the unmistakable gravity of public conflict, because nothing fascinated people in Las Vegas quite like watching beautiful women in expensive clothes destroy one another in broad daylight.Beth instinctively moved closer to me.I could feel the tension radiating from her.The fear.The uncertainty.The simple confusion of someone who had never expected an afternoon of shopping to transform into whatever this was becoming.Hannah, meanwhile, looked like someone standing in the ruins of her own kingdom.Her designer clothes were immaculate.Her jewelry sparkled.Her hair remained perfectly styled.And yet there was something undeniably frayed about her, something wild lurking beneath the polished exterior that made my stomach twist with unease.She wasn't angry.She was desperate.And desperate people always said too much.Her laugh cut through the murmuring crowd.Sharp.Bitter.Disbelievi