Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 1105

"How did you know we're from the East?" Brayden Knox challenged.

The handsome young man smiled again. "I guessed from your accents. Don't forget, I grew up bilingual. A native Mavarian can speak perfect English, but there are always subtle inflections that give the Mavarian roots away."

The reality was that Jude had been desperately searching for his fellow Mavarians for days, but came up empty despite scouring the entire hotel.

A contact in Aethelgard had tipped him off that Owen's group had left the country. Jude knew immediately they must have headed to Wall Street. Mira was a market prodigy, and he was desperate to ride her coattails for a lucrative payoff.

Despite their prior friction, the tension had largely thawed during their last Wall Street run. He hoped they wouldn't outright reject him. Yet, no matter how hard he searched, they were ghosts.

While he failed to locate Mira, he had bumped into Vivienne. Through her, he confirmed that Mira and her team were definitely on Wall Street. Still, they remained impossible to find.

Left with no other options as the mega-syndicates initiated their plays, he relied on his own analysis and threw a billion dollars in the exact opposite direction of the institutional money. But without Mira's guidance, a heavy knot of anxiety sat in his gut.

At dinner tonight, Jude had accidentally overheard this group of supposed Westerners speaking with faint Mavarian inflections. An idea sparked—could it be them?

His grandfather had once mentioned ancient Mavarian disguise techniques that were virtually undetectable.

"I promise, I don't mean any harm," Jude reiterated, worried that if he didn't speak fast enough, the bodyguards would literally kick him out.

If his instincts were right, the woman sitting in front of him had to be Mira.

Seeing that her cover was blown, Mira dropped the act. "Spit it out. What do you want?"

"I need some advice on when to dump my Siamese Baht."

Mira didn't answer immediately. "When did you figure out who we were?"

"A billion dollars. Going long."

"Your direction is correct, but I strongly suggest you close out first thing tomorrow morning. I won't lie to you—we liquidated all our positions today."

"Got it. Thank you. I'll dump it all during the opening call auction tomorrow."

Armed with a clear exit strategy, Jude walked away satisfied. Hanging around a table full of supposed Westerners while clearly being Asian would only draw unwanted attention.

After dinner, James pulled everyone into a private suite for a meeting. According to Mira's original plan, the operation was complete, and it was time to fly home. But James, a titan who lived and breathed high-stakes finance, refused to throw in the towel.

His argument was that even though the next market swing wouldn't offer the astronomical margins they had just secured, and the risk was exponentially higher, there was still money on the table. For professional investors, a volatile market like this was a goldmine that couldn't be ignored.

He pleaded with Mira. "Let's stay! Just one more round!"