Chapter 4

Zane and Roxie came for me faster than I expected.

On the fifth day, Felix brought news.

"Madam, The Apex has sent a six-person elite squad into the Golden Triangle. The one leading them is Zane's most trusted man — codename: Bloodhound."

I let out a cold laugh.

The Apex's resources were supposed to be used against enemies.

Instead, Zane was turning them on one of his own — his current girlfriend.

It was like someone stealing your house and then beating you with your own furniture.

The irony was almost impressive.

"You're their target." Hector sat across from me, his expression serious.

"I know."

"What's your plan?"

"They think I'm the prey. I'll show them who the real hunter is."

I met Hector's eyes, my gaze steady.

"Hector, I need full intelligence support from you — and your best team."

He didn't answer right away. He just watched me, like he was weighing something.

I knew what he was thinking. The intel I'd given him before had impressed him, sure — but it wasn't enough to make him go all in on me.

I needed something bigger. Something that would make him willing to walk through fire for me.

I took a slow breath and spoke.

"I know where Victor keeps his core ledger."

Hector's pupils shrank.

In the Golden Triangle, drugs and weapons were currency — but what could truly make or break a drug lord was the ledger.

It held records of every illegal transaction, every name in the web of protection behind him.

If that ledger ever got out, it meant total destruction.

Victor's ledger was the ultimate card — the kind that could flip the entire balance of power in the Golden Triangle.

"How do you know that?" There was a faint tremor in Hector's voice.

"Three years ago, when I first came to the Golden Triangle, I spent three months working for Victor as an accountant. That ledger — I built it myself."

It was the last card I'd been holding in reserve, kept for exactly this moment.

I never thought I'd use it to make a deal with a drug lord.

But right now, I had no other choice.

Hector looked at me, his eyes burning with greed he couldn't hide.

He knew exactly what this ledger was worth.

With it, he could not only destroy "Victor" once and for all — he could follow the trail all the way up, getting his hooks into the politicians and warlords who'd been protecting "Victor," and swallow every underground operation in the Golden Triangle whole.

"Why should I trust you?" Hector asked. But his tone already gave him away.

"You don't have to trust me." I stood up and walked toward him, looking down at him from where I stood. "You just have to choose — keep playing these little games with me, testing each other, or work with me and win the whole Golden Triangle."

In that moment, I was no longer Vivian, the agent who'd been thrown away like garbage.

I was the woman who held Hector's life in her hands. The woman who would decide the future of the entire Golden Triangle, a queen.