On the monitors in the dark, silent study, Dominic Moretti leaned forward until his face was inches from the glowing screens.

Evelyn moved through the lower kitchens, methodically preparing breakfast trays, her mind racing. Last night had changed everything. She had finally made contact with Mateo, but she knew she was running out of time. The hidden cameras—which she had spotted on her second day, thanks to her sharp eye for security hardware—meant Dominic Moretti was watching every move she made.

She wasn't just working off her father’s medical debts.

Her real name wasn't Evelyn Parker.

It was Dr. Evelyn Reed.

Four years ago, she had been a top-tier neuro-trauma researcher working on experimental neural-interface technology designed to bypass spinal cord injuries—technology that Roland Blackwood had illegally funded and then tried to steal. When Evelyn blew the whistle, Blackwood had framed her, ruined her career, and driven her father to financial ruin and a fatal stroke.

Evelyn had tracked the paper trail straight to the financial nexus between Blackwood and a high-ranking traitor inside the Moretti empire. To get close to the truth, she had gone underground, assuming a false identity and taking a job inside the most dangerous fortress in Illinois.

She knew Dominic Moretti was a ruthless killer. She knew he ruled his syndicate with an iron fist.

But as she carried a heavy silver tray up the grand staircase toward the master office, she realized she had miscalculated one thing.

Dominic wasn't just a monster.

He was observant.

And he was already waiting for her.

When she opened the heavy oak door to the study, Dominic was sitting behind his mahogany desk. The blinds were drawn, casting long shadows across the room. He wasn't working. He was holding a sleek, encrypted tablet that displayed live, crystal-clear footage of her conversation with Mateo from the night before.

Evelyn stopped dead in her tracks. The silver tray trembled slightly in her hands.

“Set it down,” Dominic said. His voice was dangerously quiet, lacking the explosive anger she expected. It was colder. More lethal.

Evelyn took a slow breath, squared her shoulders, and set the tray on the edge of the desk.

“You have excellent cameras, Mr. Moretti,” she said, her voice steady despite the adrenaline spiking through her veins. “Though the placement in the west corridor leaves a bit of a blind spot.”

Dominic stood up slowly. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and carried an aura of absolute, terrifying authority. He walked around the desk, stopping just inches from her. His dark, piercing eyes searched her face as if trying to rip away her skin and examine her thoughts.

“You lied on your application,” Dominic said softly. “You aren't just a housekeeping assistant. You’re Dr. Evelyn Reed. The neural researcher who disappeared after a federal corruption scandal four years ago.”

Evelyn didn't blink. She met his gaze with unyielding defiance.

“And you’re a paranoid mob boss who installs hidden cameras in his paralyzed brother’s room because you’re too incompetent to find the traitor in your own inner circle,” she shot back, her voice ringing clear and sharp in the quiet room.

For a terrifying heartbeat, Dominic didn't move. A muscle ticked along his iron jaw. In the past, anyone who spoke to him that way would have been dragged out by the guards before they finished the sentence.

Instead, Dominic’s lips parted in a humorless, razor-thin smile.

“You have a remarkable amount of courage for a woman standing in a room with a man who could make you disappear before noon,” he murmured, stepping closer until she could feel the heat radiating from him.

“And you have a remarkable amount of pride for a man whose own empire is rotting from the inside out,” Evelyn countered, refusing to step back. “Mateo knows who the mole is. He told me last night. If you kill me now, you’ll never find out who’s selling you to Blackwood.”

Dominic stared at her, his eyes locked onto hers, weighing her words, her pulse, the steady rise and fall of her chest. He had spent years trusting no one. Every person in his life had a price, an angle, a hidden agenda.

Yet looking at Evelyn—plus-size, plain-uniformed, fiercely brilliant, and standing her ground against a dozen armed enforcers—he realized she didn't want his money.