I drove six hours to check into my new luxury resort, only for the front desk clerk to toss a keycard at my feet.

wasn’t just a hotel. It was a fortress of quiet, controlled wealth. Set into a private stretch of the California coastline, it catered to clients who demanded absolute privacy—tech billionaires, foreign dignitaries, old-money families who preferred invisibility. A standard room cost around four thousand dollars a night. The entire property was designed continue reading …