(Isabella’s POV)
The words hung in the air of the war room, cold and sharp. “The target isn’t you. It’s Rico Valenti.”
A deep, chilling silence fell over the room. The monitors, which just moments before had been a source of victory, now felt like windows into a darkness I had created. My plan, my “better cage,” was not just a clever strategy anymore. It was a death sentence. I had wanted to avoid direct violence, to fight a smarter, cleaner war. But in my attempt to be clever, I had simply given one monster a reason to kill another. The result was the same: blood.
I looked at Alessandro. I expected to see shock, or maybe even a flicker of the same horror I was feeling. Instead, his face was a mask of cold, grim satisfaction. This was a language he understood perfectly. He was a man of
