They accused a poor girl of nearly killing the mafia boss’s dog, but Nero recognized her—and his reaction stunned everyone in the room.

The heavy steel door of the holding cell swung open with a loud, metallic groan.

Cora flinched against the back wall, shielding her eyes from the bright hallway light. When she saw the tall, imposing figure of Dante Thorne step into the cell, her breath caught in her throat. Behind him stood Tony, keeping watch at the door.

Dante stopped a few feet away. He looked her up and down—at the bruised wrists from the zip-ties, the tired circles under her eyes, the stain of dust on her shoulders. For a fleeting second, the cold, impenetrable mask of the syndicate boss cracked, revealing a deep, searing wave of guilt.

"They put zip-ties on you," Dante said, his voice unusually raw.

"I didn't do it, Dante," Cora whispered, tears finally spilling over her lashes as the adrenaline and fear of the last twelve hours caught up with her. "I swear to you, I would never hurt Nero."

"I know you didn't," Dante replied softly. He stepped forward, reaching out with surprising gentleness to inspect her bruised wrists. "Julian Vance wanted to break my house. He thought he could use you to do it."

Cora stared at him in astonishment. "You already know?"

"Tony traced the IP packet override from the server room twenty minutes ago," Dante said, his jaw tightening as he pulled a small pocketknife from his trousers and carefully sliced through the plastic zip-ties still binding her wrists. "Julian is already on a private flight out of Midway, or at least he thinks he is."

Cora rubbed her sore wrists, wincing slightly as the circulation rushed back into her hands. "He said... he said if you defended me, you'd look weak to the syndicate. He said you've changed."

Dante looked down at her, his dark eyes softening in a way no one outside these four walls would ever believe possible. "He's right about one thing. I have changed. For ten years, I thought power meant standing alone at the top of a mountain of ash. But when I looked at that empty kennel this morning, I realized something terrifying."

He reached out, his warm fingers gently brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face.