The pice of control

CHAPTER ONE The Woman Who Never Loses The city shimmered beneath Aria Voss like a kingdom built in her image. Abuja glowed gold beneath the night sky while expensive cars crawled through streets lined with ambition and greed. From the fifty-seventh floor of Voss Technologies, Aria watched silently. People often called her cold. They were wrong. Cold implied absence. Aria felt everything. She had learned how not to show it. “Ms Voss?” Her assistant stood carefully near the doorway. “The board is ready.” Aria didn’t look away from the glass. “Let them wait.” The assistant nodded quickly. Nobody questioned her twice. Not anymore. When Aria finally entered the boardroom ten minutes later, every conversation stopped instantly. Executives straightened. Screens closed. The atmosphere tightened. Power moved with her. She sat calmly at the head of the table. “Start.” The CFO immediately activated the presentation. “Quarterly profits are up eighteen per cent. Expansion projects are stabilising, and investor confidence remains exceptionally high.” “Skip ahead.” A nervous pause. “There’s… a complication.” Aria folded her hands. “What kind?” “A competitor.” She almost smiled. “There are always competitors.” “Not like this one.” The room shifted uneasily. “They’ve been quietly acquiring smaller analytics firms connected to our infrastructure.” “Name.” Silence. Then: “Dante Kade.” The air changed. Aria’s expression remained unreadable. But internally? Something sharpened. Dante Kade. The ghost billionaire. The man no one fully understood. The man who vanished from the public eye years ago after building a billion-dollar empire before thirty. “Interesting,” Aria said softly. “He’s aggressive,” the CFO continued. “Strategic. Calculated.” Aria finally looked up. “So am I.” Nobody spoke after that. Because everyone in the room knew something important. Aria Voss did not fear competition. She destroyed it. CHAPTER TWO The Man in the Shadows The investor gala smelled like expensive perfume and fake loyalty. Aria hated both. Still, she moved gracefully through the room in a black silk dress that turned heads without effort. Whispers followed her. Admiration. Fear. Envy. She ignored them all. Aria didn’t attend events like this to socialise. She attended to observe. A waiter handed her champagne. She took it absentmindedly. Then she felt it. That strange sensation of being watched by someone intelligent enough not to stare. “Still pretending you dislike attention?” The voice behind her was low. Controlled. Dangerous. Aria turned slowly. And there he was. Dante Kade. Tall. Sharp. Calm in a way that suggested violence hidden beneath discipline. His dark suit fit perfectly, but it was his eyes that unsettled her most. Steady. Observant. Like he saw more than people intended to reveal. “Mr Kade,” she said coolly. “Ms Voss.” “You’ve been difficult to find.” “That usually means I don’t want to be found.” A faint smile touched her lips. “And yet here you are.” “Curiosity.” “About me?” “About what you’re building.” The answer landed carefully between them. Too carefully. Aria studied him. “You’re interfering with my business.” “No,” Dante replied. “I’m investigating it.” Her eyes narrowed. “That sounds worse.” “It probably is.” He stepped slightly closer. Not enough to touch. Enough to challenge. “You’ve made powerful enemies, Aria.” Her expression never changed. “Powerful enemies are usually proof of success.” “Not these.” For the first time that evening, genuine tension curled beneath her skin. Because Dante didn’t sound threatening. He sounded concerned. And somehow that felt more dangerous. CHAPTER THREE The Secret Meeting The message arrived at 2:13 a.m. We need to talk. Alone. No number. No trace. Aria already knew who sent it. The unfinished skyscraper stood at the edge of the city like a warning abandoned halfway through construction. Dark. Empty. Perfect. Aria entered without hesitation. She heard him before she saw him. “You came.” Dante stepped from the shadows. “You asked.” “I expected curiosity.” “Don’t mistake curiosity for trust.” “I wouldn’t dare.” He moved closer slowly. “There’s someone inside your company.” Aria’s eyes hardened. “Explain.” “Your systems are being compromised.” “Impossible.” “I thought you were smarter than denial.” The comment irritated her immediately. “Careful.” “You need to be.” Silence stretched. Then Dante lowered his voice. “This isn’t random. Someone is targeting you specifically.” “Why tell me?” “Because if they succeed, we both lose.” “And if I refuse to work with you?” A faint smile touched his face. “You won’t.” Aria hated how confident he sounded. More than that— She hated that he was probably right. CHAPTER FOUR Cracks in the Armour By sunrise, Aria confirmed the breach. Tiny discrepancies hid beneath millions of perfect lines of code. Someone had been inside her systems for months. Maybe longer. She stared at the screen while frustration burned beneath her calm exterior. Nobody got past her defences. Nobody. Except once. The memory surfaced before she could stop it. Elias smiled at her over the takeout boxes in their tiny apartment. Elias promised they’d change the world together. Elias is destroying her life. Aria shut her laptop hard. No. She refused to think about him. Her phone rang. Dante. “You found it,” he said. Not a question. “Yes.” “And now?” Aria leaned back in her chair. “Now I figure out who’s stupid enough to think they can outplay me.” Dante laughed softly. It surprised her. Because she realised something dangerous. She liked the sound.