The morning after the crash felt too quiet. The kind of quiet that never meant peace only preparation.
Lena stood by the floor to ceiling window of the safehouse conference room, watching the city breathe smoke and secrets. The broadcast had gone dark thanks to Ethan, but the victory tasted like ash. The enemy hadn't vanished they'd just changed weapons.
"Something's off," Ethan murmured from the laptop, screens reflecting code in his eyes. "Adrian's side hasn't gone silent. They're re-routing through legal channels now. Fast."
Nathaniel leaned back against the table, the tension in his jaw visible even through his calm façade. "Define legal."
Ethan turned the screen around. The documents glowed with crisp, weaponized precision court filings, board petitions, injunctions. Adrian was suing. Hard.
"Fraud. Breach of corporate security. Conspiracy," Ethan said. "He's calling you the saboteur, Lena. And he's got the board's signatures to back it up."
Lena's hand tightened around the coffee cup until it cracked. "He's flipping the narrative," she muttered. "He's going to make me the villain."
Nathaniel's gaze didn't waver. "He's not wrong about one thing you did break into his systems."
She shot him a look sharp enough to draw blood. "To stop him from broadcasting a lie."
"I know," Nathaniel said quietly, stepping closer. "But truth doesn't matter in his world. Only who tells the story first."
Before Lena could reply, the door burst open. Mira one of Lena's inside operatives entered, her face pale and phone in hand.
"It's worse," Mira said breathlessly. "Adrian called an emergency board meeting. In an hour. And guess what? He's got a motion to remove you from your own company, Lena."
Lena froze. The words didn't just hit they detonated.
Ethan looked up, alarmed. "He's staging a full takeover."
Nathaniel's voice dropped low, dangerous. "Then we stop it before it happens."
"How?" Lena asked, her pulse racing. "He's got the legal ground, the PR front, and the board under his thumb."
Nathaniel's expression shifted less strategist, more wolf. "We take the ground back. You're not fighting this from behind anymore. You're walking straight into that boardroom."
Lena blinked. "They'll eat me alive."
"Then bite first," Nathaniel said, his tone cold and deliberate. "You've already outsmarted Adrian once. Do it again, but this time, on his stage."
Ethan slammed his laptop shut. "We've still got digital proof that Adrian forged the contracts with the biotech division. If I can decrypt the backup before the meeting"
Lena cut him off. "Do it." Her voice steadied, steel beneath the exhaustion. "Nathaniel, get me that seat at the table. I'm not running anymore."
Nathaniel's eyes met hers, war meeting recognition. Equal fire. Equal risk. "Consider it done."
The team scattered into motion Mira setting up encrypted calls, Ethan buried in lines of code, Nathaniel calling in political favors Lena didn't know he still had.
Lena stood there a moment longer, staring at her reflection in the window. The city lights framed her like a warning she wasn't just being hunted anymore. She was stepping into the den herself.
Her phone buzzed. Unknown number. One message.
"You think this is about the company? You still don't see it. You were never the target, Lena. You were the trigger." A.
Her breath caught. For the first time, fear wasn't the only thing in her chest. Curiosity and something darker bloomed beside it.