"They touched what was his—so he turned mercy into a weapon, and lit the world on fire."_Unknown
When Levi found out Maeve had been taken, something inside him snapped.
A silence first. Then a slow, deadly burn in his chest. He knew the world he lived in. Knew exactly what men like them were capable of.
His hands shook. Adrenaline flooding his system.
Not from fear. From rage.
They had taken what was his — and they had no idea what they'd just started.
He didn't wait. Didn't breathe. He burned. Everything. Down.
The flash drive Mikhail recovered confirmed it — smuggling routes, access codes, weapon shipments, weaknesses — every dirty secret of the BSCs laid bare in front of him. It was war, and Levi would win before it began.
He divided his men into three teams, assigning one command:
"Leave the children. Burn everything and everyone else to the ground."
And they did.
One by one, the BSC's compounds went up in flames, Levi's fury eating through every inch of their legacy.
But Levi didn't send anyone for the leader.
He went himself.
The man had been in a meeting — speaking to his men one moment, and in the next, they were dead.
The room was soaked in blood.
And Levi? Calmly seated across from him, one leg crossed over the other, a gun resting in his hand.
"Where is she?" Levi asked — voice deathly calm.
The man raised his hands. "I'll tell you everything, mate. Let's talk. Like the two leaders we—"
BANG. BANG.
Bullets tore through both hands. He screamed, eyes wild.
"Drop your hands," Levi said coldly, cocking the gun again, "and it'll be your brains next."
The man sobbed, frozen, blood pouring down.
"You underestimated me. You killed my men. You smuggled under my name. You moved like a ghost in my city."
Levi leaned forward, his eyes glowing with wrath.
"But then… you took her." A dark chuckle escaped his lips. "You actually had the balls to take her."
The man was shaking, barely holding himself up.
"Now…" Levi stood, pressing the gun to his forehead.
"Where. Is. She?"
***
Guilt poured through Levi like acid, eating its way straight to his heart. Yes—he'd married her for the inheritance, nothing more. But she had become his responsibility.
While he chased wars outside the mansion walls, he'd forgotten the fragile life he'd left inside them. In just forty-eight hours she'd been taken, tortured, broken beyond the cracks she had.
Seeing her strung up in chains—so small, so utterly lifeless—His heart had stopped beating momentarily. Only the faint rise and fall of her chest convinced him she was still rooted to this world. The image slammed him back to the day he found his mother, a memory etched in blood and failure. He had not been able to save her.
He would not fail Maeve.
From this moment on, he swore to cover her path in flame—one so scorching no one would dare step across it. As long as Levi Gazdanov breathed, pain would never touch her again.
---
Maeve had been unconscious for three days since Levi found her—three days of silence, of waiting, of guilt clawing at him with every second that passed.
In those seventy-two hours, Levi had flipped his world inside out.
He gave Anton one order: find the traitor. There was no way Maeve's abduction had happened without help from the inside.
Katya claimed she had been locked in the ladies' room while reapplying her makeup. A weak excuse. Noelle, still recovering from her surgery, told Levi that Katya's car had mysteriously vanished during the ordeal. Suspicion only deepened when a maid came forward, trembling, and confessed that she saw Katya sneaking into Maeve's room that same day—removing a tiny camera from a luxury bag.
A camera that had been linked to the BSCs.
Proof. Betrayal.
Katya broke.
She crashed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, her body trembling as she clung to Levi's feet. "I didn't mean for it to go that far," she wept. "I—I did it because I love you, Levi! I only wanted her out of the picture."
But Levi's heart was made of stone now. What he saw in that torture room had buried any last thread of mercy.
"You'll be sent to a country in Africa," he said coldly. "Ten of my most loyal men will guard you. You will not leave the house unless it's for your burial."
Katya screamed, fighting against the guards who dragged her away. Her designer bags were already packed. The door she once strutted through with pride now swallowed her in disgrace.
The final blow?
Levi canceled her engagement to Ivan. Publicly.
Ivan fell to his knees. "I had no idea... I swear on my life." His voice cracked with shame. "I will repay you, Levi. Any way you ask."
Levi didn't answer. His silence said enough.
His mind wasn't on Ivan. It was in that dark room.
Where Maeve had been left to bleed.
Because someone he trusted had opened the door.