MAFIA BOSS BROUGHT HIS NERDY SECRETARY TO AN ELITE SUMMIT AS A HUMILIATING JOKE—UNTIL SHE WALKED IN LOOKING LIKE A RULING EMPRESS AND EXPOSED HIS ENTIRE EMPIRE'S DARKEST SECRET

Khnets slumped against the shattered navigation console, gasping for air, clutching his bleeding shoulder. The storm raged outside, smashing against the reinforced glass of the bridge.

"Elena... please," Khnets wheezed, his arrogance completely shattered. "It was business. Your father understood business. We can make a deal... I have seventy million in Zurich... it's yours. All of it."

Elena stepped forward, pulling the heavy platinum and emerald necklace from her pocket—the necklace of the Volkov family crest—and held it before his dying eyes.

"My father built an empire on loyalty and honor," Elena said, her voice echoing with the authority of a hundred fallen kings. "You built yours on cowardice, treason, and blood."

"Elena—"

"For Viktor Volkov," she whispered.

With a single, blindingly fast motion, Elena drove the blade straight into Khnets' heart.

The Russian Don gasped, his eyes rolling back, and collapsed lifelessly onto the floor of the wheelhouse.

The room fell completely silent, save for the rhythmic hum of the dying engines and the howling of the winter wind outside.

Elena stood over the body of the man who had destroyed her life. The weight of six years of hiding, running, and wearing the mask of a timid, invisible nobody finally lifted from her shoulders. Her hands began to tremble slightly as the adrenaline receded.

Vincent stepped forward. He didn't say a word. He simply reached out, wrapped his strong arms around her, and pulled her tightly against his chest.

Elena buried her face in his neck, letting out a long, shuddering breath she felt like she had been holding for half a decade. She didn't cry—queens of the underworld didn't cry—but she held onto Vincent with an intensity that spoke louder than any words.

"It's over, Elena," Vincent murmured into her hair, his hand gently cradling the back of her head. "It's done."

"Not quite," she whispered, pulling back slightly to look into his ice-blue eyes. "We still have an underboss to deal with. And a Commission that needs to be reminded who rules this hemisphere."