Episode 9

The footage played silently.

Enzo Ricci's face was bloodied, one eye swollen shut. His hands bound to a chair. A Cain operative stood behind him, expressionless.

Sera stared at the screen in Lucien's phone. Her wine glass sat untouched.

"What did he say?" she asked.

Lucien's jaw flexed. "That Delgado has a new buyer for your company shares. Someone from the Middle East. They want to take your entire company offshore and bury your name."

Sera sat back against the couch, fingers tapping lightly on the glass table. Her mind raced, but her face remained calm.

"And the sniper?"

"Not his men. Freelancers. Delgado hired out of Kiev. They were already flown back."

"Then he's cleaning house too," she said. "Trying to cover tracks before he makes his final move."

Lucien nodded.

"I've seen this pattern before," he said. "When a man's desperate, he creates noise to distract from his real plan."

Sera looked at him.

"What's the real plan?"

Lucien leaned in, voice low.

"To break your name. Take your reputation. Then offer to 'save' you. He'll frame it as mercy. And the world will applaud it."

Sera's lips tightened.

"I don't need saving," she said. "He should know that by now."

Lucien studied her face.

"You're colder than the first day I met you."

"And you like it," she said without blinking.

Lucien didn't deny it.

But beneath the mask, he saw the tension in her hands. The weight she now carried, invisible to the boardroom and the press.

He reached out and placed his hand over hers.

"Let me carry some of it."

Sera hesitated. Then turned her palm up and laced their fingers.

She didn't speak.

She didn't need to.

The war had changed them both.

And now, they were no longer fighting alone.

⎯

The next day, Delgado hosted a quiet business dinner in Monte Carlo. No press. No cameras. Just five men in suits, sipping whiskey by candlelight.

He smiled as he handed over a folder.

"Moretti Holdings' reputation is collapsing," he said. "The board is fractured. The chairman has been removed. Public trust is dying."

One of the men flipped through the folder.

"And Cain?"

"Busy cleaning up after his girlfriend. I don't even need to touch him yet."

The man nodded.

"Then we move."

Delgado smiled.

"Tomorrow, we announce the offshore buyout. You offer the board three times the share price. They won't refuse."

"And Moretti?"

Delgado's eyes gleamed.

"She'll be too late."

⎯

But Sera Moretti had never been late in her life.

She stood inside a high-rise apartment overlooking the sea. It wasn't her home. It belonged to an ex–intelligence broker Lucien had once saved in Moscow.

Now the man owed him.

And tonight, Sera was collecting.

"You need to see this," the broker said, handing her a flash drive. "It's not just Delgado. The man funding the buyout? He's tied to a terrorist front."

Sera froze.

"You're sure?"

"Deadly."

She plugged the drive into her tablet. Documents, shell company names, illegal transfers.

If the board accepted the deal, they wouldn't just lose the company.

They'd be accessories to an international crime.

Lucien stepped beside her, silent as stone.

"They're planning to announce it tomorrow," Sera said. "If I don't stop this…"

"They'll bury your name in scandal."

Sera's eyes hardened.

"Then I'll bury them first."

⎯

That night, Sera sent out ten private emails.

Each one contained a simple message:

"Emergency meeting. Noon. Come alone. One chance to survive."

Attached was a sliver of the evidence. Just enough to scare them.

Then she turned to Lucien.

"I'm going to war tomorrow."

He didn't argue.

"I'll be waiting outside the door."

She stepped close, pulled him by the collar.

"You ever think we wouldn't survive this?"

Lucien touched her cheek.

"No. But I thought you'd stop letting me in."

"You're already under my skin," she whispered. "I can't push you out now."

He kissed her.

This time, not with hunger — but with possession. With certainty.

With the kind of promise only the damned made.

⎯

The next day, 11:55 a.m.

Sera stood outside the boardroom.

She wore no jewelry. No makeup. A black silk shirt tucked into high-waisted pants. Power without decoration.

The ten board members arrived, one by one. Nervous. Confused.

She said nothing.

When the last chair was filled, she walked in and shut the door.

Collins stood behind her. Vivienne sat near the end, arms crossed.

Sera placed the flash drive on the table.

"What you're about to see," she said, "is what Delgado tried to keep hidden."

The screen lit up.

Names. Transactions. Offshore accounts tied to sanctioned entities.

Some board members gasped.

Vivienne leaned forward, fascinated.

Sera waited until the last slide faded.

Then:

"If you sell your shares to this buyer," she said, "you won't just lose your legacy. You'll go to prison."

Silence.

Sera looked each of them in the eye.

"Or — you sign this," she said, placing a new agreement on the table. "A merger. Cain Enterprises and Moretti Holdings. We consolidate. We lead together."

"You'd give him your seat?" someone asked.

"No," Sera said. "We share it."

Vivienne stood.

"I vote yes."

One by one, the hands went up.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

By 12:18 p.m., the future had changed.

And Delgado had lost.

⎯

Hours later, Delgado stared at the breaking news on his TV.

Caine-Moretti Global Merger Finalized.

Lucien Cain and Sera Moretti Announce Shared Empire.

He hurled the remote.

Glass shattered.

"We had it!" he screamed. "We had her!"

His assistant entered, pale.

"We have a bigger problem."

"What now?"

"The FBI just called," he said. "They want to talk about the shell companies."

Delgado's blood went cold.

Then the phone rang.

Unknown number.

He answered.

"Sera," he hissed.

Her voice was silk and smoke.

"You underestimated the wrong woman."

"Enjoy it while it lasts," he spat.

"Oh, I will," she said. "From your seat."

Click.

⎯

Later that night, Sera returned to her penthouse. She dropped her coat, walked barefoot across the marble.

Lucien sat waiting for her on the couch.

She didn't speak.

She just climbed onto his lap, curled against his chest, and let herself breathe.

He held her.

No dominance. No defense.

Just skin. Heat. Victory.

"I've never been owned," she whispered.

"You're not," he said. "You just let me in."

"And you?"

Lucien's voice was low.

"I've only ever let one person in."

Sera looked up at him.

"And now?"

"I'll burn every piece of this world," he said, "if it means keeping you safe."

She kissed him.

And for one night — just one — they let the war fade behind them.