She barely made it to eleven o'clock. Richard had glued himself to her side for the rest of the evening — hand on her back, presenting her, and doing the proud husbandroutine with increasing desperation, as if he could sense something shifting under his feet.
Annie smiled, drank champagne and answered questions and felt the three of them watching her from across the room like wolves at a treeline.
At 10:50, Marcus caught her eye, tipped his head toward the elevators, and vanished.
At 10:55, Elias did the same.
At 11:00, Victor, still deep in conversation with a board member, lifted two fingers off his glass in a tiny *go*.
"I'm going to freshen up," Annie said to Richard.
"Want me to come?"
"No," she said, and walked out of the ballroom.
---
The bar was two floors up, low-lit and
