“Yes, I know who did this. And he’s a dead man.”
Then I’m back to hunting.
I use every network I’ve built.
Every alliance I’ve bought.
Every throat I’ve shaken in dark rooms.
All of it.
All for her.
Because I know who orchestrated this.
Dimitri.
My uncle.
My father’s brother.
The man who has leached off our family’s fallen monarchy for decades—using my father’s death as a stepping stone, using me as a pawn.
He dared touch her.
He dared take her from me.
“All morning,” I growl, pacing the backseat like a caged lion, “I’ve been saving this goddamn arms deal. Making sure Hephaestus United has the means to produce the promised shipments. Ensuring we stay in the game. Protecting my interests. Protecting everyone’s interests.”
I slam my fist into the window hard enough to fracture the glass.
“And for what? So I could get blindsided in my own home?”
Michail speaks carefully, like a man navigating a minefield.
“Sir, what are your orders?”
Orders.
There is only one left.
My voice drops to a low, lethal rumble.
“We kill anyone who stands between me and my wife. We find Dimitri. We raze his empire. We tear his world apart brick by brick. And we track down everyone in my organization with secret loyalties to my uncle—and we end them too.”
And then quieter, but deadlier, I add, “When we get there, whoever finds Dimitri, they leave him for me. And if he has touched so much as a single hair on her head?”
I swallow hard.
“There won’t be enough left of him to bury.”
Because he went and made this personal.
And there’s no power in this world strong enough to protect him from me now.
For a startling moment, I realize everything I’ve ever worked for is meaningless compared to her.
The legacy my uncle covets.
