[Jake's POV]
Martin Hale gave us the first real shape of Isabella's pressure network before Evelyn Cross took him away.
Not the full picture. Men like Martin never had the full picture. They were given one locked door, one number to call, one threat sharp enough to keep them obedient. But fear made people careless, and by the time he finished shaking in the back of the SUV, Claire had seven names, two private dinner locations, and a phrase that made everyone in the car go quiet.
The Winter Table.
It sounded harmless. Almost elegant. The kind of name rich people gave to private charity circles so they could gossip over wine and call it philanthropy. But the way Martin said it, with his voice trembling and his eyes fixed on the floor, told me it was something else. Not a company. Not a board. A room. A circle. A place where the women attached to powerful men traded information those men were arrogant enough to leave unguarded.
