"Served her purpose." Marco repeated the words slowly, letting them hang in the air. "She carried your child, raised your son, kept your secret from your wife and her entire family, and now that food is running low, you're packaging her up like leftover meat and offering her to the first man with a full pantry. That's not devotion, Ashford. That's the behavior of a dog that eats its own young when the kennel gets too crowded.""You don't understand the stakes involved." Ashford's composure finally cracked, a sharp edge pushing through the polished surface. "I have four former military bodyguards with me. Each one of them has killed more men than you have bullets. They can clear a building with blades alone and leave no survivors. I am offering you a peaceful, mutually beneficial arrangement, Mr. Ferretti. I strongly suggest you accept it. Because the alternative involves my men paying you a visit, and I promise you that conversation will not be conducted over the phone."Marco smiled.

"It cost a hundred million dollars and three months of work." Marco's voice came through the intercom from the other side of the glass. "Now take off your clothes."Katya blinked. Already? No small talk, no negotiation, no circling around the obvious? He's skipping straight to the point. She let a shy, nervous smile pull at the corner of her mouth."All of them? Right here?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with the delicate, practiced shyness of a woman who wanted to seem reluctant. "You don't even want to know my name first? Buy me dinner? Most men at least pretend to be polite before they ask something like that.""I already know your name. Katie, Building 7, three days without food. Very tragic." Marco's voice carried zero warmth. "Everything off. Fold it neatly and set it on the floor where I can see it.""Can't I at least come inside first? It's warmer but I'm still cold and I'd feel more comfortable if we could just sit down and..." She trailed off, letting vulnerabil

Katya spun around, hands up, ready to play the terrified vulnerable girl one final time. But Marco was not looking at her body. His eyes were fixed on her hair.The hot water and steam had washed out the temporary black dye she had applied days ago. Pale, platinum blonde hair hung in wet streaks around her face, the dark color running down her shoulders in thin rivulets and pooling at her feet like ink dissolving in rain. Her left contact lens had shifted in the humidity, exposing a sliver of pale blue iris beneath the manufactured brown."Your hair is blonde." Marco leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, his tone carrying the mild curiosity of a man who had just noticed something interesting about an insect trapped under a glass. "And your eyes are blue. Funny how that works, Katie from Building 7 with the bad circulation and the cold feet."Katya reached up and touched her hair. Black dye ran between her fingers. The remaining contact lens was already floating off cente

"And your powerful in laws." Marco kept going, the pieces clicking together in his head like gears in a machine. "They found out about Amber and the baby, didn't they? They're the ones who hired someone to clean up the mess. To eliminate you, the girl, and the child so they could keep control of the empire you built for them."The silence that followed told Marco everything he needed to know."How did you..." Ashford's composure cracked for a full second before he welded it back together. "That's speculation.""That's fact, and you know it." Marco's mind was already three moves ahead. A man like Ashford, trapped in a neighborhood with no resources but still possessing the organizational instincts of a corporate predator, was far more dangerous than any starving mob."Let me redirect this conversation." Ashford's voice dropped into something harder, the velvet glove coming off to reveal the iron fist underneath. "I have four men with me. Former military. Special operations. Each one of

"And what?" Ashford turned to her with a look so dismissive it could have peeled paint off the walls. "Charm him to death? Breastfeed him into surrender? He just rejected a deal that would have made him a billionaire. You think batting your eyelashes at his security camera is going to crack those doors open?"Amber's face flushed red and she looked back down at the baby without another word."We don't attack the fortress." Ashford walked to the center of the room and lowered his voice, forcing every person in the apartment to lean in slightly. "We build an army. There are nine buildings in this neighborhood. Hundreds of people. Most of them are starving, freezing, and desperate enough to sell their own mothers for a warm meal. We take control of the weak ones first. Seize their supplies. Recruit the strong men through promises and threats. Building by building. Floor by floor. Until we own every single resource and every single body in this neighborhood."He let the words settle befor