JULIUS
The sunlight spilled across my office like a carefully poured glass of whiskey—golden, smooth, warm enough to take the chill from the night I had worked through. I leaned back in the leather chair, the weight of responsibility still pressing heavy across my shoulders, but softened by the steam rising from the coffee cup at my desk. One sip, bitter and dark, and the world seemed momentarily manageable.
I hadn't realized how long I had been at it until I glanced at the clock. The city was waking, but I had yet to rest. A CEO on one side of the mask, a mafia king on the other—neither allowed for weakness. Sleep was a luxury men like me couldn't afford, not when empires were built and destroyed in the span of a single night.
My tie felt like a noose as I tugged it loose, rolling my neck. I had signed more papers than I could count, reviewed numbers, approved transactions, calculated risks. Numbers were predictable. People weren't. And it was the people who kept me awake.
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. Sharp, measured. Louis. Always Louis.
"Come in," I said, voice steady but edged with fatigue.
The door opened, and he entered with that look on his face—the rare, subtle smile that told me this wasn't a routine update. Louis didn't smile unless the world had just handed me a blade to slit someone's throat.
"Sir, I have good news," he said, and I caught the flicker of satisfaction in his eyes.
I leaned forward, elbows resting on the polished mahogany desk. "Say it, Louis. What is it?" My tone betrayed the faint spark of excitement—I already knew it was something worth hearing.
He inhaled, then let the words spill out in a single, eager breath. "Sir, we got the files we wanted against Joseph's group. Every locked system, every hidden account—we cracked everything. Their walls are down. You can take them anytime you choose."
A slow smile spread across my lips. Finally. "That's… excellent." I exhaled, leaning back and loosening my tie further. "For the first time in weeks, I think I might actually sleep." My voice was laced with dry amusement, though sleep was unlikely. Victory was always better than rest.
"Yes, sir. Definitely. Just say the word, and we'll start dismantling them." Louis stood straighter, already bracing for instructions.
"Not yet," I said, lifting the cup of coffee and letting the warmth bleed into my palm. "Let them enjoy the illusion of stability for a little longer. When I strike, it won't just be a wound—it'll be the death of everything they've built. I want them to taste comfort before I burn it down."
Louis nodded once, the shadow of admiration passing over his features. He understood. He always did.
"They should have seen this coming," I continued, my tone dropping into something darker. "Betraying me when my company had financial issues was the worst mistake of their lives. They thought weakness made me disposable. Now, I'll show them how wrong they were."
I placed the cup down with deliberate care and steepled my fingers. "And when we take over, you'll bring Joseph to me. I want to look him in the eyes when he realizes everything he fought for is ash. I want him to beg for the air in his lungs."
"Yes, sir," Louis replied with a firmness that told me he was already imagining it.
He turned to leave, but something stirred in my mind—a separate thread tugging at me, pulling me away from business and into the personal game I had been quietly weaving.
"One more thing, Louis," I said, my voice a low command.
He paused immediately, eyes sharp, attentive.
"I'll be releasing Miss Nova Valleria," I told him. "Assign someone to keep eyes on her, twenty-four seven."
For the first time, confusion flickered across his usually unreadable face. "Releasing her, sir? If you don't mind me asking… why?"
I let the silence hang for a moment, then smiled. A slow, deliberate curve of my lips, the kind that carried more threat than reassurance.
"Because keeping her here has become… boring," I said. "A bird in a cage eventually stops fluttering. But if I set her free, even with invisible chains, I can pull the strings in ways she won't see coming. It's more entertaining that way."
Louis's brow furrowed slightly, but he knew better than to argue. "As you wish, sir."
"Good." I leaned back once more, the sunlight now higher, sharper across the room. "She'll think she's walking into freedom. But every step she takes will be on a path I've carved. She'll live outside these walls, yes—but still in my hell."
Louis inclined his head, then finally left, the soft click of the door sealing me back into silence.
I allowed myself a moment, staring at the rim of the coffee cup, the faint ripple of steam twisting upward. Nova Valleria. Even saying her name in my thoughts carried a sting. She was dangerous in ways she didn't even understand. Her mind was sharper than most blades I'd faced, her defiance still lingering despite her failure to escape. She wasn't like others who had crumbled before me.
And that was exactly why I wasn't letting her go.
She thought she'd beaten me the night she tried to climb from my window with sheets tied together. She thought she could break out of my world. Foolish. Brave. Infuriating. And now, she would learn that freedom wasn't always salvation. Sometimes, it was the cruelest illusion of all.
I picked up my pen again, sliding another document closer, but my eyes didn't see the ink. They saw her face instead—the defiance, the fear, the flicker of power when she agreed to my deal. I'd released countless pawns in my life, but none had lingered in my thoughts the way she did.
"Wait for it, darling," I murmured into the quiet, my voice almost tender, though no one was there to hear. "Even if I release you, you'll still be mine. And when the world outside burns around you, you'll understand—hell follows me, and now, it follows you too."
The sunlight shifted again, casting long shadows across the office floor. Shadows I had learned to live in, shadows that would soon swallow Joseph, his empire, and perhaps even Nova herself.
I smirked. The game was only beginning.