JULIUS
The room was cold—too cold, even by my standards. I liked control. Precision. Discipline. But today… today felt off.
I stood behind the one-way mirror, watching her.
Nova Valleria.
I had read that name over a hundred times in the last hour. My men had brought her in unconscious after she foolishly tried to report me—with a damn pen drive, no less. Like this was a courtroom. Like this was justice.
She was smaller than I expected. Not physically, no—but in her presence. She wasn't the type of woman you'd expect to be bold enough to break into my system. My empire.
And yet… there she was.
Tied to a chair, groaning, disoriented.
And alive.
She should've been dead by now.
That was the rule. No exceptions. No witnesses.
But something in me broke protocol. For the first time in years.
She had seen the video—that video. The one no one was supposed to even know existed. And now she was tied up in my private interrogation room, cursing under her breath with blood on her lip, looking like she belonged to a different world than mine.
I clenched my jaw and exhaled sharply.
"Sir," Louis spoke softly beside me. "She woke up. Orders?"
I didn't respond immediately. My eyes were locked on her. The way she kept flexing her wrists against the ropes, testing the limits. Like she believed she could still get out.
Like she wasn't afraid.
Interesting.
"I'll handle this myself," I said finally, stepping away from the glass.
Louis looked hesitant. "Are you sure?"
I turned my head slightly. "Do you doubt me?"
"No, sir. Of course not."
As I walked down the hallway, my footsteps echoed against the marble. Every step sharpened the thought that had been scratching the back of my mind since Louis reported the breach—
How the hell did she do it?
Our cybersecurity system was custom-built. Layers of defense. Quantum encryption. A digital fortress. I had paid millions for it. No one—no one—had gotten through.
Until her.
I opened the steel door slowly. The hinges creaked like a warning.
All the men in the room straightened and bowed slightly.
I didn't speak. I walked in, sharp and silent, and took my seat directly across from her.
That's when she looked up at me.
God.
She didn't look afraid.
Not broken.
Just… angry.
Messy hair. Dried blood at the corner of her lip. One shoe missing. Still holding onto fire.
"Is this the girl who broke into our system?" I asked without taking my eyes off her.
"Yes, sir," Louis replied. "Nova Valleria. Ethical hacker at Zero Trace Labs. Lives in Moscow."
"Ethical hacker," I murmured, as if the term was a joke.
She shifted, testing the ropes again, then rolled her eyes at the sea of black suits around her.
"Am I at someone's funeral?" she muttered. "Why is everyone wearing black like it's a mafia costume party?"
I almost smiled.
Almost.
"You're Julius Ruvanov, right? That devil hiding behind a good-boy face?" she said, voice sharp with disdain.
Ah, so she knew.
"Charming," I replied, leaning in. "Chill, Miss Valleria."
I could see the twitch in her jaw. The flicker of tension. That told me more than her insults.
"This is my empire. Everyone here respects me. Bows to me," I said. "And you—you broke into that empire. You saw things you weren't supposed to see."
"Is this a cult?" she scoffed.
Her defiance. It was so… untrained. Raw. Most people begged by now. Cried. Pissed themselves. I had seen it all. I had caused it all.
But this woman…
She was different.
And I hated that I noticed.
"By judging the situation you're in," I said coolly, "you're not in the position to be cracking jokes."
"Oh, but I'm the joke?" she snapped. "You've got a chair, a bunch of suits, and a weird God complex. Congratulations."
I could've killed her right then. I should've.
Instead, I pulled out my gun and pressed it lightly to her temple.
Her breath hitched. She flinched. But she didn't beg.
I waited.
"Look," she said finally, the fight breaking into desperation. "Whatever this is—it wasn't intentional, okay? My dog spilled coffee on my system. It crashed. I was frustrated and slammed the keyboard. A file popped up. I didn't mean to open it. I just… clicked."
I stared at her.
Was she serious?
That's how you break into the most secure mafia database in Russia?
Keyboard smashing?
"You sure you're a hacker?" I asked slowly. "Not a stand-up comedian?"
"I don't care what you think," she spat. "I didn't plan this. But you kidnapped me! You tied me up like some criminal. I haven't done anything to you. What gives you the right?"
I tilted my head. "You know what you saw."
She didn't respond.
"You crossed a world you weren't ready for, Nova."
She tensed when I said her name.
"Please," she said after a long pause. "I'll pay you. Whatever you want. I'm not broke. Just let me go."
Ah. There it was.
The money offer.
Finally, a piece of normalcy in this chaos.
I gave her a flat look. "Do I look broke to you?"
"No, but—"
"I don't want your money," I said, standing up. "I want my peace. You disturbed it."
"So what do you want then?" she shouted. "You want to kill me?! Okay then, kill me you motherf*cker!"
Silence fell like a blade between us.
I didn't move.
She stared at me with a mixture of fury and fear.
And I…
I felt something shift inside me.
That anger. That fire.
I'd spent years in blood, power, control. No one dared speak to me like that.
And now here she was.
Bleeding. Broken.
Unyielding.
"Interesting," I muttered.
"You're interesting."
She recoiled like the word offended her.
"You're not going back to the world you came from," I said as I walked toward the door. "From now on, you live in mine."
Her voice exploded behind me.
"You can't do this! This is illegal!"
I laughed under my breath. Illegal. Sweet.
Then she cursed me. Loudly.
"F*ck you! You're going to burn in hell!"
I paused.
Turned back slowly.
Leaning toward her, I planted my hands on both sides of her chair, bending close enough for her to smell my cologne and the ash on my breath.
"F*ck me?" I whispered with a smirk. "Aren't you a little ahead of schedule?"
She flinched again, disgusted. I liked it.
"And darling," I said, "you're not even my type. So you can mourn that in peace. As for hell…"
I leaned in closer until our noses nearly touched.
"We're already there."
I pulled back and walked away.
The door slammed behind me.
But her voice echoed in my head long after.
---
Back in my office, I sat down, poured myself a drink, and stared at the wall.
What was it about her?
She wasn't the first person to cross me. Not the first to see something they shouldn't.
But something about her made it hard to pull the trigger.
Maybe it was the way she didn't cry.
Maybe it was that dumb explanation about coffee and keyboard smashing.
Maybe it was her voice. The tremble that wasn't fear—it was frustration.
She wasn't trying to survive me.
She was fighting me.
And for some reason, I couldn't look away.
I hated this.
She was a problem.
A code I couldn't crack.
And yet, I already knew…
I wasn't going to kill her.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
And that made her the most dangerous person I'd ever met.