Smoke billowed toward the shattered vaulted glass ceiling, casting eerie, shifting shadows across the marble floor. Emergency backup red lights hummed to life along the baseboards, bathing the room in a bloody, dramatic glow.

I crept along the shadows of the balcony stairs, clutching the heavy brass candelabra like a club.

Down in the center of the foyer, Victor was locked in hand-to-hand combat with a massive, heavily armored mercenary. Victor’s jacket was torn, his shirt stained with blood and soot, but his movements were precise and lethal. With a sharp twist, he brought his elbow down hard against the mercenary’s jaw, sending the man crashing unconscious onto the marble floor.

He panted heavily, wiping blood from his forehead with the back of his hand, and turned around—just as a second mercenary emerged from the shadows behind the grand staircase, raising a silenced pistol directly at Victor’s back.

"Victor! Look out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Victor spun around instantly, but the mercenary’s finger was already tightening on the trigger.

Without thinking, I hurled the heavy brass candelabra across the twenty-foot gap of the foyer with every ounce of strength I had left.

CLANG!

The heavy brass object caught the mercenary square in the temple, throwing his aim off just a fraction of a second.

Bang!

The bullet shattered the marble pillar inches from Victor’s head.

Before the mercenary could recover, Victor closed the distance in two explosive strides, driving his fist into the man’s chest and sweeping his legs out from under him. The mercenary hit the floor hard and didn't move.

The foyer fell into a sudden, breathless silence, broken only by the crackle of distant flames and the heavy sound of Victor’s breathing.

Victor stood frozen in the center of the room, surrounded by fallen adversaries, his dark eyes slowly lifting toward the stairs where I stood holding onto the wooden banister.

He didn't look angry. He looked stunned.

"You threw a candelabra," Victor said, his voice a mixture of absolute disbelief and raw, primal awe. "At a trained mercenary."

"You're welcome," I panted, walking slowly down the stairs, my knees shaking so badly I could barely keep my balance. "Next time, try staying in the library where it’s safe."

Before Victor could answer, Marcus emerged from the service corridor dragging a bleeding, disarmed syndicate captain by the collar.

"All sectors secured, Boss," Marcus reported, breathing hard. "The rest of the extraction team fled through the perimeter breach when the power grid spiked. We got them cornered at the gates."

Victor didn't take his eyes off me. He walked across the ruined marble floor, ignoring the blood on his hands and the smoke swirling around us, until he stopped right in front of me.

"You didn't go into the panic shelter," Victor said quietly.

"Tommy hacked the utility grid from his hospital bed," I replied defensively. "And I wasn't going to sit in a dark hole while you got shot."

Victor reached out, his warm hands gently cupping my face, his thumbs brushing softly against my cheekbones, leaving a smudge of soot across my skin.

"You’re an impossible, reckless, infuriating woman, Bennett," Victor whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "You walked into my life as a maid, and within three weeks, you've completely dismantled every wall I spent a lifetime building."

"Is that a complaint, Mr. Russo?" I asked softly, a weak, trembling smile touching my lips.

Victor’s dark eyes softened completely, the hard edges of the ruthless billionaire melting away into something infinitely tender.

"It’s a surrender," he murmured, just before pulling me into his arms and kissing me right in the middle of the smoking ruins of his empire.