The distant clink of the flash drive sliding into the embrace of Elena's laptop felt too loud in the ominously empty room. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, her body screamed for her to stop, close the laptop, and pretend all of this was not happening.
Yet she couldn't stop the trembling of her fingers when the folder popped up on her screen.
Inside were dozens of encrypted files—innocuous-looking strings of random letters and numbers—except for one folder that, blaringly, was unencrypted and all-in-caps EMPYRE.
An upset rumbling formed in her stomach.
She clicked.
Photos. Videos. Audio recordings. And—God—documents detailing murders disguised as accidents, financial trails leading to shell companies, and names… dozens of names. Senators. Judges. CEOs. Some she recognized instinctively from the news. All tied to one man.
Adrian Volkov.
Her throat constricted as her eyes watered down with the evidence—contracts for assassinations, bank statements revealing multimillions moved offshore, blueprints for hidden weapons caches in urban settings all across Europe. It was more than damning. Overt justifications are good enough for overthrowing entire governments.
She could hardly breathe when she scrolled further, landing on her own name.
Not a target list.
Not a threat file.
But in a surveillance dossier months old, dated at the time well before she met Adrian.
Every detail about her life—her apartment lease, her favorite café, even her medical records—was here. Then in the notes section:
"Potential leverage. High emotional susceptibility. Maintain proximity."
Her chest hollowed out. The room seemed to close in on her.
She heard the door open behind her.
"Elena," Adrian said, voice low and almost soft—except there was an edge underlining it. The kind that made whatever was left of the air feel like glass.
She didn't turn around. "How long, Adrian? How long have you been watching me?"
Silence, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate, right until he stood immediately behind her chair. "Since before you knew my name."
Her fingers dug into the laptop. "So what was I, then? A pawn? Another asset you could control?"
"You were never just an asset."
"That's not what your little file says." She spun on him, tears stinging her eyes, the cold glow of the screen illuminating his face. "It says high emotional susceptibility. Is that what this all was? Some game to make me fall for you so I wouldn't see who you really are?"
Adrian clenched his jaw, but those eyes, those eyes showed something so raw. "I needed to protect you."
"Protect me?" Bitter laughter escaped her. "From what? From you?"
They stood staring at each other for a moment, the tension thick and almost tangible between them.
Then he stepped forward, gripping the armrest of the chair. "That flash drive is a death penalty, Elena. For me. For you. For anybody who touches it. You think you simply just walk away with that information? They will come for you before sunrise."
She swallowed hard. "Maybe I'll take my chances."
Something dangerous flickered in his gaze. "If you do this, if you go to the authorities… you won't survive the week. And I won't be able to save you."
Her voice shook-but she wouldn't look away. "Maybe I don't want you to."
Adrian moved fast, as if to grab the laptop, but instead gripped her chin, lifting her face up to his. "You're not ready for this war, Elena."
Her heart was racing, and his touch burned, even now, even after everything she had seen. More than the flash drive, she was afraid of what Adrian did to her.
"You don't get to decide what I am ready for," she whispered.
He stepped closer, his lips barely grazing her ear as he murmured, "Then be ready to burn."
And just like that, he was gone-slinking out of the room in a speed that belonged only to him, leaving her with the laptop, the incriminating files, and the decision that would either make or break them both.