I am careful not to look away from her, not to compartmentalize, not to shut her out while I step into my father’s shoes. When I end the call, the silence stretches. My body still holds that posture. The natural authority that all those cold showers couldn't wash away.
She crosses to me, puts her hand on my arm. "Does it scare you? How easily it comes back?"
"Terrifies me." I look down at my hands. Steady, controlled, nothing like the trembling when I held Rosa's recipe. "I spent so long trying to forget this, and it takes less than a week to remember."
She presses closer, her body warm against mine, and I catch the scent of her skin. Vanilla and something musky that makes my cock stir.
"I need both versions,” she says. “The man who finds recipes and the one who commands empires. Especially if you're going to keep me safe tomorrow."
Her proximity makes it hard to think. The curve of her neck is right there, begging for my mouth. I want to press her against the wall, mark that skin, remind us both that whatever happens tomorrow, she's mine. But I force myself to stay still, to be the controlled version she needs right now.
And my will, when it comes to controlling myself around her, grows more compromised by the hour.
Sunday evening, Logan's office transforms into our war room as shadows lengthen, our family dinner switched out for a family mission briefing. The screens are up, data laid out in neat columns, every variable accounted for. Logan stands at the center like a conductor, while Gunner fills the doorway, Isa leans against the wall, and Sera sits forward in her chair, absorbing every detail. Only Adrian and the Siren are missing, since this doesn’t require their skills.
"The vault requires dual biometric," Logan says, highlighting a section on the screen. "Sera's thumbprint. And Reyes's retinal scan, which he'll provide thinking he's helping a widow access her husband's assets."
Gunner's "Simple" is practically poetry from him, but Logan's already pulling up another screen.
"On paper, yes. But we don't trust Reyes. He's either fully aligned with certain interested parties, or he's playing every side. Either way, he becomes a variable the moment they're inside that bank."
"So we control what we can," I say, and feel the room's attention shift to me. Authority threading through my voice, making decisions. "What are our contingency protocols?"
Logan nods, pulling up the operational roles. "I run remote coordination from here. Real-time comms with Sera, plusmonitoring Reyes's digital footprint. If he contacts anyone during the operation, I'll know instantly."
"Gunner's our ground asset," I continue, the plan crystallizing. "In Manhattan, extraction-ready if anything goes sideways."
Gunner nods once, already running scenarios behind those pale eyes.
I turn to Isa, and the room holds its breath. She hasn't accepted Sera, hasn't warmed to her presence, but this operation needs her specific skills.
"Isa," I say directly, not asking Logan to assign it. "I need you on counter-surveillance. Monitor Reyes's communications for the next forty-eight hours. Calls, texts, patterns. If he's going to betray us, you'll see it coming."
The silence that follows is heavy.
Isa doesn’t look at the screen. She looks at Sera. A long, measured assessment, the kind she’d give a stranger who walked in off the street claiming to be family.
“No.”
The word lands like a blade on marble. Logan’s fingers pause on his keyboard. Gunner shifts his weight in the doorway.
“Isa—” I start.
“Why would I help some random woman access information that could bring down this family?” Her voice is flat, controlled, but the anger beneath it has edges. She turns to face me fully. “She shows up out of nowhere, she’s been running a parallel investigation none of us knew about, she’s been lying to you for weeks, and now I’m supposed to spend forty-eight hours protecting her operation?” She gestures toward Sera without looking at her. “We don’t know what’s in that vault. Julian Voss’s insurance policy against the Delgados. Against your father. Against you. And I’m supposed to help her open it?”
The room is very still. She’s not wrong. That’s the part that lands hardest.
Sera speaks before I can. “You’re right.”
Isa’s eyes cut to her, surprised despite herself.
“You don’t know me,” Sera continues, voice steady. “And whatever’s in that vault might be exactly what you’re afraid of. But it’s also the only leverage keeping Cristian Markovic from killing everyone in this room. Including you.”
The two women hold each other’s gaze. Isa’s jaw works once, the only crack in her composure.
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” Sera says. “I’m asking you to protect them.” She nods toward Logan, toward the doorway where Gunner stood. “That’s what you do. That’s what you’ve always done.”
Another silence. Longer this time.
