Page 85 of Bad Girl Dilemma

Dahlia

The momentthe encrypted drive slides into place and the last firewall crumbles, the world holds its breath.

Then—silence.

Not static or system noise. Not Dante’s curse when a timer hits zero. Just the pure, ringing hush of a clean break. A closed loop. A heist finished.

It’s over.

The Vesper Syndicate’s vault is gutted. Every offshore account, every blackmail file, every veiled threat catalogued, cracked open like a skull at our feet.

I don’t move until Dante locks the server room at Obsidian behind us, the scene of my tenth heist and his final one.

No fanfare or live-streaming or witnesses.

Just Dante and me, bleeding adrenaline, soaked in a high that tastes like ash and triumph.

It’s only once we’re in the car, coasting in the dark, that I realize I’m crying. Quiet, steady tears that streak my cheeks and soak the collar still fastened tight around my throat.

Not from fear. Not even from the rush.

Relief.

A full-body, bone-deep surrender to the fact that we made it out.

That the data I ripped from Vesper’s marrow finally lays my mother’s ghost to rest—and, in the same breath, slays the monsters I’ve been fighting in her name.

His hand finds mine across the console. Rough and shaking. Holding tighter than I expect.

“You did it,” he says, voice broken and reverent.

“We did,” I whisper.

I squeeze his hand back. And don’t let go.

Dante

There areno words when we reach the penthouse.

Only the pounding of our hearts. The echo of destruction still thundering in our blood. I strip out of my gear in the hall.

She moves beside me, silent and fluid. Still riding the high.

I watch her.

Her boots come off first. Then the utility belt, unbuckled with one flick of those thief-trained fingers. She peels off her body armor, layer by layer, until only the collar remains.

And then she turns.

Dark blue eyes—haunted and blazing. Full lips swollen from the stress-bite she always gives herself when she's deep in code.

“Master,” she says. Then, “Fuck me.”

She says it like a command.

Like a plea. Like something holy.

And I’m undone.

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