The silence inside the Phoenix Collective offices was no longer the productive hum of industry; it was the tense, vibrating quiet of a battlefield after the first volley.
Bella sat in her leather-backed chair, her posture perfect, though her pulse hammered a frantic rhythm against her collarbone. The monitors in front of her were a sea of red. The injunction had locked their primary operational accounts, and the fire at the North-Point warehouse had successfully incinerated the original land deeds.
On the surface, it looked like a total rout. To the public, The Phoenix Collective was hemorrhaging money and legal standing. To Damien, it must have felt like the ultimate victory—the moment the "upstart" was finally brought to heel.
But Bella was a woman who had survived the cruelty of the
