The bluntness lands like a physical blow. Not who's threatening you. Who wants you dead.
"I need everyone who benefits from your destruction." He sits across from me, close enough that I can see the intensity in his eyes. "Everyone positioned to take your role. Everyone working with Armand. And the personal side. Every Dom who pushed boundaries. Every scene partner who wanted more. Every interaction that felt wrong. Names. Motivations. Everything."
The request breaks through every defense I've built. He's not asking me to choose between corporate sabotage and personal obsession. He's asking me to admit that both are threats. That I'm being attacked from multiple directions by people who want different things but might achieve the same result: my complete destruction.
"I'm so tired of being strong. Of fighting everyone who thinks I don't deserve this position. Of proving myself every single day like the company my family built for generations isn't mine by right." My hands are shaking. "And now I can't even trust that the parts of my life I kept separate are actually separate. Someone's been watching me. Recording me. And I don't know if they want to destroy my company or destroy me personally or if those are even different things anymore."
Luc reaches across the table, covers my hands with his. The touch steadies me the way his commands do. Certain. Safe.
"You're not losing your company." His voice carries absolute conviction. "We find them. We stop them. Then you walk back into that boardroom with proof someone tried to destroy you and failed. That's power, not weakness."
I want to believe him. But believing requires trust I'm not sure I know how to give.
"How?" The question comes out small. Vulnerable. Everything a CEO should never sound like.
"Let me do my job. Trust I can keep you safe. Admit you can't fight every battle alone." He squeezes my hands gently. "And go to Dominion tonight."
I stare at him. "You want me to go back to the club? Where the cameras were planted? Where someone's been watching me for weeks?"
"Draw them out. They're escalating. Building toward something. I control when and where it happens."
"By giving them what they want to see." I understand what he's planning. "You want me to book a private room. Let them think I'm vulnerable. Make them believe they can get to me."
"I want them to try." His expression hardens into something dangerous. Something that reminds me he's not just a Dom. He's an operative trained to neutralize threats. "Because when they do, I'll be waiting."
The words should terrify me. Instead, they feel like the first solid ground I've stood on in days.
"And if they don't take the bait? If they're smart enough to recognize a trap?"
"Then we learn how smart they are. Either way, we're done waiting." He releases my hands, sits back. "I need you to trust me. Follow my commands without hesitation. Can you do that?"
The question hangs between us. He's asking me to submit in the space where I've spent years faking it. Asking me to surrender control where I've maintained it most carefully. Asking me to trust him with my safety in the exact location where someone's been documenting my vulnerability.
It terrifies me, and… it feels inevitable.
"Yes, Sir." The words come out steadier than I expect. "When do we go?"
"Tonight. After your meetings." He stands, moves toward the door. "Handle your legal review. Your conversation with Henry. Tell him the truth if you trust him. Maintain the act if you don't. Either way, we move forward."
He leaves me sitting at the desk, hands still trembling from admitting how exhausted I am. How scared. How close to breaking under the weight of maintaining control in every aspect of my life.
Tonight I'm going back to Dominion. Back to the private rooms where someone planted cameras. Where someone's been watching me surrender, except this time, the only eyes that matter are Luc's.
6
LUC
Iwatch from the doorway as Simone finishes her last video conference and closes her laptop, the professional mask slipping now that the cameras are off. Exhaustion shows in the tight lines around her eyes.
"Meetings done?"
"Finally. Legal cleared the Gulf acquisition. Uncle Armand made his usual digs."
"You handled him well this morning. I need to brief Remy at the operations center." I pull out my phone. "Need to coordinate tonight's op. I'm posting Derek here while I'm gone."
"The same operative as before?"
"Different one. He'll be downstairs. Same protocols—you don't leave this guest house, you don't open doors or windows, you text me if you need anything."
