The evening veiled the city in glass and velvet, the skyscrapers sparkling like a crown of jewels. Adriana Veyra, in her penthouse office, stood looking out at the lights' infinite spread, her own reflection misted in the glass.
The leaked video looped muted on the wall screen behind her, replaying like a curse. A shadow that could have been hers. An envelope slid across a table. Fabricated evidence, but evidence all the same.
The Moranos had struck with precision. And the world saw her bleed.
The groan of elevator doors opening shattered the silence. Damian Hale stepped in, his booming presence occupying the space like thunder before the storm.
"You're looking like a queen about to draw the sword," he said, setting a folder on her desk.
Adriana did not look up. "I do not draw swords. I disassemble them."
His lips curled. "So you'll enjoy what I have.".
She turned, her heels snapping on the marble, and moved to the desk. The folder waited like a promise between them. She opened it, reading fast.
Financial statements. Offshore accounts. Against-the-law transactions all bearing the fingerprints of the Morano Group.
Her eyes narrowed. "Where did you get this?"
"Let us just say the Moranos aren't as careful as they believe. And I have people who enjoy digging where they don't belong."
Adriana closed the folder, her mind in a whirl. "If we print this, it will ignite the fire on them. But they'll scream forgery."
"Obviously," Damian agreed. "That's why we don't print it first off. We equip it."
She arched an eyebrow. "Explain."
He stepped closer, voice low, whispered. "We spill it strategically. Investors first those already on the fence. Then the media. By the time Moranos scream foul, their own people will already doubt them. We let them die in suspicion."
Adriana's heart beat, not from the strategy, but from proximity. He was like dark spice and steel, danger disguised in elegance. She beat her mind back into focus.
"You're suggesting we wage war with lies."
"I'm suggesting," he said to her, his gaze fierce on hers, "that you employ every weapon at your disposal. No queen ever survived a war playing by the book."
Her mouth hardened. "And if I lose myself in the fire?"
Damian's face flared with passion. "Then I'll burn with you."
For a moment, the city outside the windows did not exist. The air between them throbbed, charged with something neither of them would be brave enough to name.
Adriana broke it, cold and sharp. "Get the leaks ready. We strike at dawn."
Hours dissolved into each other as the two of them worked, side by side at her large glass table. Her staff had been dismissed; Damian alone remained behind.
Spreadsheets, phone records, encrypted reports scattered across the table like battle maps. Adriana's fingers flew across her laptop keys, dictating statements, double-checking facts. Damian leaned over beside her, close enough for his cuff to brush against her arm, close enough for each shift of his body to cause her heart to trip.
"Careful," he whispered once, eyes aglow. "You're biting your lip."
She didn't even know she was doing it. She stopped, then glared at him with fire. "Do you ever stop?"
"Not when it's about you."
Her heart had fooled her, skipping a beat, but she confronted the screen once more, concealing the shake behind steel.
By three a.m., the plan was in motion. Encrypted messages transmitted to strategic investors. Reports planted among two powerful financial reporters. A storm to be released with the dawn light.
Adriana leaned back into her chair, fatigue twisting through her marrow. But beneath it, something else hummed: anticipation. Power.
Damian observed her, his expression unmoving in the dim light. "You're magnificent when you fight," he said finally, his voice low.
She arched a brow. "Flattery doesn't suit you."
"It's not flattery," he said. "It's fact."
Her throat closed. She hated the way his words seeped under her guard, hated the way they lodged.
"You're impossible," she whispered.
"And yet you keep me here."
The air between them thickened, electric. For an instant, the war faded and there was only him, only her, only the flames leaping in the stillness.
Adriana braced herself to rise, breaking the enchantment. "You ought to go away."
He rose too, moving nearer, his darkness spilling over hers. "Say you don't want me here," he breathed.
Her breath caught. Her pride howled to tell him. Her body deceived her immobility.
The city pulsed below, alive and fidgety.
Then her phone rang, shattering the moment.
She picked it up, her blood running cold as she scanned the message.
Breaking: Morano Group secures emergency injunction. Court orders Veyra Holdings to freeze assets pending investigation.
Her empire. Her money. Locked up.
Her heart constricted. For the first time, a fissure cracked her mask.
Damian's arm came around her, holding her tight, securing. "This is their play. Which means they're playing on fear. Don't break now."
Her eyes leaped to his, and for the first time, she let him look it the fear, the anger, the fire.
"I don't break," she whispered.
His grip adjusted, tightened. "Then let's make them regret they ever thought you might.".
As the first light of dawn spilled over the city skyline, Adriana stood at Damian's side, their reflections twin shadows in the glass. The war was on in earnest.
And although she despised to admit it, she knew one thing now.
She couldn't fight this alone.
For better or worse, Adriana Veyra had just hitched her empire and maybe her heart to Damian Hale.