Chapter 315: Then We Start Sending Him Pieces Of Her

"What should I say?" she asked.

"Whatever you want," Dante replied. "As long as the message is clear: If Dimitri wants Eve back alive, he needs to surrender, he needs to walk away from his empire and his city and his life, leaving everything in our hands."

"And if he refuses?" Isabella asked quietly.

Dante looked at the security footage showing Eve being escorted to her containment suite.

"Then we start sending him pieces of her," Dante said coldly. "Fingers first. Then toes. Then things that matter more. We show him that refusing us comes with a very specific cost."

Isabella felt something cold move through her at those words.

But she didn’t argue.

Because Dante had shown her that love and possession and obsession were all the same thing, just expressed in different intensities.

And she’d chosen to be possessed by him completely.

Which meant accepting everything that came with it.

Even the darkness.

*** 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

POV: DIMITRI

10:04 AM

The conference room on the forty-second floor of the Valentino Building was all glass and steel and the kind of understated luxury that screamed old money and serious power.

Dimitri sat at the head of the table, across from three executives from a European pharmaceutical company that was interested in partnering with his legitimate business operations. The woman in the middle....Mary Hensworth, CEO...was in the middle of explaining their projected growth margins.

Dimitri wasn’t really listening.

He was thinking about Eve. About Dante. About the trap he’d set and the vulnerability he was certain Dante would exploit.

The door to the conference room exploded open.

Marco stood in the doorway, and his expression immediately told Dimitri that something was catastrophically wrong.

"We have an emergency," Marco said, his voice cutting through Mary’s presentation.

Dimitri stood immediately.

"Gentlemen, ladies, I apologize," Dimitri said, his voice controlled but his body language already moving toward the exit. "We’ll have to reschedule this meeting. Something has come up that requires my immediate attention."

"Of course, Mr. Valentino," Mary said, her professional smile faltering slightly. "We understand...."

Dimitri was already past her, already moving toward Marco.

"What happened?" Dimitri demanded as they walked rapidly toward the executive elevators.

"It’s Eve," Marco said, his voice tight. "She’s gone. She was taken from the company approximately one hour ago."

Dimitri’s blood went ice cold.

"What do you mean, taken?" Dimitri asked, even though he already understood exactly what Marco meant.

"I mean, at approximately 9:47 AM, a coordinated extraction team breached Phoenix Talent Agency. They disabled the lights on the executive floor. They breached Eve’s office. They extracted her through the basement and transported her via vehicle to an unknown location."

"The penthouse security," Dimitri said, understanding the implications immediately. "I upgraded that. I prepared for that. They hit her at the company instead."

"Yes, sir," Marco confirmed. "Which means..."

"Which means I was wrong," Dimitri finished coldly. "Which means Dante out-thought me. Which means I prepared for the wrong attack."

The elevator arrived, and they stepped inside.

"Details," Dimitri commanded as the elevator descended. "Everything. Now."

"The extraction team was professional," Marco said, pulling up files on his phone. "Military-trained, coordinated, disciplined. They knew exactly where to hit, exactly when to hit it, and exactly how to execute without triggering any alarms."

"How many men?" Dimitri asked.

"Minimum five on the extraction team. Possibly more on support."

"Causalities on our side?"

"None. They took down the lights, breached the office, extracted Eve, and were gone before our security team even understood what was happening."

Dimitri felt something dark and terrible rise up inside him.

Not fear. Fear was for weak men. This was something deeper. This was rage. This was the knowledge that Dante had played him perfectly and that Eve was now in the hands of a man who’d proven he was willing to do anything to break Dimitri.

The elevator reached the ground floor.

Dimitri’s mind was already three steps ahead, already calculating responses, already planning the counter-attack.

"My office," Dimitri said, moving toward his private elevator. "And call Mike. Tell him to get to the office immediately. Tell him it’s about Eve."

Marco was already making the call.

The private elevator took Dimitri directly to his office on the forty-fourth floor.

When the doors opened, Dimitri’s phone was already in his hand, Marco passed the phone to him.

Mike answered on the first ring.

"Yeah?" Mike’s voice was casual, unaware of what had just happened.

"Dante took her," Dimitri said flatly. "Eve. He took her from the company approximately one hour ago."

Silence.

Then: "What the fuck did you just say?"

"Eve has been extracted by Dante’s team. She’s gone. We don’t know her current location. And I was wrong about how he was going to do it. I prepared for the penthouse. He hit the company."

"Son of a bitch," Mike said, his voice turning lethal. "That son of a bitch actually did it."

"Yes," Dimitri confirmed, moving into his office and closing the door. "Which is why I need you here now. We have maybe minutes before he sends a message. Before he makes demands. Before this becomes a negotiation."

"I’m coming," Mike said immediately. "Where are you?"

"My office."

"Ten minutes," Mike said. "I’m already moving."

The line went dead.

Dimitri immediately pulled up his secured communications system.

"Marco," he said. "I need full CCTV access to Phoenix Talent Agency. All footage from 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM. Every camera. Every angle."

"Already pulling it," Marco said, appearing in the office doorway with his laptop. "Give me sixty seconds."

Dimitri settled behind his desk, his mind processing information at the speed of a predator assessing a threat.

Dante had been planning this. Had been gathering intelligence. Had been waiting for exactly the right moment.

And Dimitri had given him that moment by upgrading the penthouse security.

The irony was bitter.

"We have it," Marco said, connecting his laptop to the large monitor on Dimitri’s wall.