Chapter 19
Her red silk gown looked like blood poured over bones, and her mask couldn’t hide the madness dancing in her eyes.
The second she stepped forward, hand raised like she thought she still owned the world–I struck first.
My slap cracked through the silence, sharp and satisfying. Her body jerked, head turning to the side, and I didn’t let her recover.
I stepped closer, voice low and calm, the kind of calm that made men flinch.
‘Try that again and I’ll have your head served on a golden platter to Niccolo. I’ll watch him stare at your rotting scalp while I drink vintage from your skull.”
She gasped, stunned. Her mouth opened but no words came out.
leaned in, close enough for her to feel my breath.
‘You sold lies and burned homes. You think I didn’t see the blood under your manicured nails? You think this auction is power? I am the power. I was born from the bones of women like you, and I will bury you in the silence you deserve.”
She raised her chin but I saw her hand tremble.
turned my back on her without hesitation, brushing invisible dust off my shoulder. “Next time you enter a war dressed like a mistress, make sure you’re not playing against a queen.”
And with that, I walked out.
Michael’s voice crackled into my earpiece. “Are you alright?”
smiled faintly. “She’ll think twice next time.”
Niko added with a laugh, “Or not at all if we remove her jaw.”
didn’t answer. I just walked back into the ballroom like nothing happened, head high and mask steady, and let the empire watch their future unfold.
NICCOLO’S POV
Fuck this life. I can’t sleep. It’s been hours since that Del Vale gala ended and I’m still wide wake, eyes locked on the screen, rewinding the same footage over and over. That woman in ›lack. The one who moved with precision. Confidence. Silence. She didn’t flinch, didn’t try to mpress. She just existed and demanded attention without asking for it.
grabbed the remote again, hit play. She was dancing, her back bare, head tilted, fingers relaxed. Nothing loud, nothing desperate. But there was something about her. The way she carried erself, the way she nodded, even the way she sipped her wine. It’s her voice, too. Calm, deep, steady. I’ve heard that voice before.
said low, “There’s something off about this. That woman… I know her.”
messaged Luca. “Trace her. Every guest at that gala. I want a name. A file. Anything.”
He came back with shit results. I didn’t even look at him. I already knew from the way he walked
- n.
‘No focial match No record tied to the quest liet Whoover che io che dogen’t avist in anu
Chapter 19
319
50.00
12:56 pm Pppp.
“No facial match. No record tied to the guest list. Whoever she is, she doesn’t exist in any system we checked,” he said.
I clenched my jaw. “So someone with no name outbid me and walked out with my code?”
“She used a coded identity, Boss. Protected by another house. We’re still breaking the layer.”
I slammed my hand on the desk. “You break that layer tonight or I’ll start breaking bones.”
My phone kept buzzing. Margot again.
Didn’t pick up.
Next buzz. A text: “I’m in the hospital. It’s serious.”
I didn’t move. I didn’t care. I saw her last night. She was stalking me through the estate like wouldn’t notice. Always behind columns, always watching. She’s slipping. I don’t even care if sh saw me watching that masked woman. Margot’s been dead to me since the last fake blood tes she threw on my table.
Let her rot in her hospital bed if that’s where she really is. Or not. I’m done.
Morning came fast. No rest. Just smoke and silence. Luca came in again, this time with a sealed envelope.
‘Montenegro family sent this,” he said. “They want a private summit. Valencia. Invitation–only.”
I took it, tore it open, scanned the content. Real seal. Real summit. I tossed the paper down. “It they want to talk, we’ll talk. But I won’t sit in a room and play diplomat while someone in thei circle hijacks my shipments and walks around bidding with my stolen goods.”
Luca didn’t answer.
I lit a cigarette and stared at the wall. That masked woman wasn’t just anyone.
I know her. And I’ll know the truth soon.
Even if I have to tear down the whole Montenegro estate to get it.
We arrived at the Montenegro estate under full escort. Armed guards, encrypted gates, and drones in the goddamn sky. Luca stayed sharp beside me, but I could feel him tense. This wasn’t just wealth. This was territory that knew exactly how to kill a man and bury him in paperwork so clean, it’d look like a natural death.
We were led to a long boardroom…glass walls, steel chairs, silence that weighed. The guard said, “You’ll meet the representative shortly.” Then walked out like this was some kind of fucking
ceremony.
I stepped forward. The room was too quiet. Too clean. I hate quiet.
That’s when I noticed the chair at the head of the table. Someone was sitting already, turned away, facing the glass. And when the chair turned–slow and deliberate–I felt my chest tighten like I’d taken a slug point blank.
Geneva.
Hair darker. Eyes colder. Legs crossed. Composure like a weapon.
Chapter 19
No mask.
No hesitation.
No fucking fear.
My jaw locked. “Geneva…?”
On her right sat a man, arms folded, gun holstered, smirk that told me he was ready to shoot without blinking. On her left, another–sharper, cleaner cut, dead eyes that belonged to a lawyer who’d slit throats with legal papers and never blink twice.
She said it so damn calm, I almost didn’t hear it.
‘I’m Geneva Montenegro. Lost daughter of Don Domino Montenegro.”
What?
stepped back without meaning to. “The fuck did you just say?”
Then the door opened. And in walked the man they all bowed to.
Don Domino Montenegro.
His walk had weight. Every step told me he’d bled more countries than I’d ruled blocks. But it was the way he looked at her…kissed her forehead first like she was the center of this whole kingdom, that made it all snap
in my head.
She wasn’t hiding.
She wasn’t running.
She was rising.
He turned to me.
“You burned what was mine once,” he said, voice like it had been dipped in iron. “I suggest you don’t try again.”
I didn’t speak. Because I fucking couldn’t. I was standing in enemy territory. And the woman I thought I broke? She was sitting at the top of a table I couldn’t flip anymore.
Fuck.
