The drive back to the city was a silent, grim procession. The ghost of Yakov’s vile smile and his poisonous words filled the car, a contamination they couldn’t escape. Sasha stared out the window, her face a pale, stony mask. Nora’s mind, however, was no longer reeling. It was calculating, cold, and clear. The grief and the fear had been burned away in the forge of Yakov’s threat, leaving behind a core of hardened steel.
She was done being a custodian. It was time to be a conqueror.
Back in the penthouse war room, the screens glowed to life not with stock tickers, but with a new kind of battlefield. Nora stood before them, Sasha a silent, determined presence at her side.
“He thinks we’re weak,” Nora stated, her voice echoing in the quiet room. “He thinks because Demetri is gone, the Vol
