The following morning after Damian Hale had burst into her office, Adriana Veyra stood at the penthouse window, a cooled coffee cup in her hand.
She hadn't slept. Her dreams had been jangled things Damian's voice writhing through them like smoke, his presence bearing down on the glass of her mind. She told herself it was only irritation, only rage. But rage did not make her pulse pound like this.
Drawing a hard breath, she set the cup down and wheeled towards the folder on her kitchen counter.
Work. Work was control. Work was order.
But when she opened it, her control fell apart.
Scorched across the front page of today's financial newspaper blazed a headline in bold:
VEYRA HOLDINGS UNDER FIRE RIVALS CIRCLE AS SHADOWS FALL
Her gaze darted down the column. A leak, anonymous. Gossip of corruption surrounding her latest purchase. Whispers that her empire was about to collapse. Stock prices plummeting. Rivals circling like vultures.
Her gut roiled. Not because she believed the words—lies, half-truths at most. But because perception was power. And once perception was tainted, it was hard to clean.
She shut the folder with a slam and grabbed her phone. Damage control. Press releases. Lawyers.
And then, as if the devil himself had been listening to her thoughts, her phone rang.
Damian Hale.
She almost threw it across the room.
By mid-morning, Adriana sat once more in her glass-walled office, sleeves rolled up past her elbows, hair pulled back into a tightly knotted knot. Crisis team encircled the long table, their words a frantic litany of "containment," "rebuttal," and "market stabilization."
She stood motionless, stone-faced, until the door opened without a knock.
The room went silent.
Damian Hale walked in as though he owned the floor. Dark suit. Calm eyes. A storm wrapped in silk.
"Out," he said simply.
The advisors bristled. "Excuse me, Mr. Hale, but"
Adriana's voice cut through. "Leave us."
The room emptied in seconds, tension trailing in their wake.
When the door shut, Damian crossed to the table, plucked the folded newspaper from the stack, and tossed it down in front of her.
"You're bleeding," he said.
She didn't flinch. "It's a scratch."
"It's an opening." His voice was low, controlled. "And they'll keep scratching until they tear you apart."
She glared at him, cold and steely. "Then let them try it."
Damian leaned back against the table, arms folded, gazing at her as if she were puzzle and prize.
"You're good, Adriana. The best. But even queens can be deposed if the court turns against them.".
Her mouth curled into a dangerous smile. "Is that why you're here? To witness my downfall?"
"No." His eyes blazed steady into hers. "I'm here because if you fall, they will come for me next. Our empires are entwined whether you desire it or not."
She stood up, going to the window, her shadow tall against the cityscape. "So this is self-interest."
"Call it survival." His voice was nearer now; she hadn't heard the sound of his footsteps, but now he was standing behind her, his image merging with hers in the glass.
Her pulse betrayed her again. Damn him.
"You really expect me to believe you'll help me?" she snapped, attempting to harden her voice.
"I don't expect belief," he breathed. "I expect recognition. You require my help, Adriana. Maybe not forever. But now."
She turned, her heels snapping against the marble, their bodies inches apart. "And how much?"
Damian smiled lazily, wickedly. "The truth always, Adriana you already know the price."
They spun in circles around one another for a moment, tension simmering.
Then he crushed it, his voice deep and full of challenge. "The name associated with this leak VeyraTech's arch-nemesis. Morano Group. They've hated your family for years prior to your taking the throne. And they're not above using dirt, fact or rumor, to take you down."
Adriana's jaw set. She had suspected as much. The Moranos had been snapping at her heels for years.
Damian stepped forward, his voice lowering. "They'll hit harder. They'll attack your board, your investors. You can muddle through barely. Or you can allow me to stand with you."
Her laughter was coarse. "Stand with me? Or over me?"
He turned his head. "With you. Though you'd prefer it if I knelt, isn't that so?"
Passion exploded between them, fiery and explosive.
She swallowed it down, concealing the shake in her chest. "I don't take allies who want to own me."
"Then take one who wants to burn with you."
The words hung in the air, heavy with meaning.
Her hand trembled where she had left it on the glass top. She made it into a fist, forcing control back into her marrow.
"This is business," she said finally, level. "Nothing more."
"Lie to yourself all you like," he breathed, "but don't waste the lie on me."
Her eyes met his. City lights twinkled back and forth between them, endless and heartless.
And for one dangerous beat, she thought she would surrender. Would let him fill that final inch.
Then the ring of the desk phone shattered the spell.
Adriana spun around, snatching it up. "Yes?"
Her aide's voice was tight. "Ms. Veyra… the Moranos just broke a press conference. They're charging you with fraud. They've filed an injunction on your latest acquisition."
Silence unwound. Adriana's nails dug into her hand.
When she replaced the phone, Damian stood behind her, eyes black with certainty.
"They've made the first strike," he said. "Now we make our strike. Together."
She breathed in, hard and icy. "I don't need you."
He stepped closer, his shadow on hers, his voice low and unshakable. "Yes, you do. And the sooner you say it, the sooner we win."
Adriana returned to the window, her reflection shattered in the glass. She hated him for being right. Hated herself for needing him.
But most of all, she loathed the burn in her veins the thrill of dancing on the edge of fire, knowing she was unable to step back.
At her back, Damian's voice came like a vow.
"I'll stand at your back against them, Adriana. But when the fight is over, when we've left the Moranos in ruins… you'll stand at mine."
She did not look. She could not. Her mask was secure, but her heart throbbed brutally.
For the first time, Adriana Veyra realized the war she was about to fight could not just be against her enemies. but against herself.