Solienne

Chains rattled.

Katya Kurova sat on a rusted steel chair, her wrists bound with reinforced cuffs that glinted under the low warehouse light. The air smelled like oil and rust and stale fury. A single bulb swung overhead, casting shadows like ghosts onto the concrete walls. Six figures stood before her, each a different kind of storm.

Leonardo was ice - frozen fury in tailored black. Giovanni was thunder - tension rippling under calm. Aurelio was fire - silent, contained, burning. Francesco was the blade - sharp, quick, unpredictable. Antonio was smoke—elusive, quiet, coiled with pressure. Carlos was command-measured steel with the weight of another empire behind his gaze.But Katya?

She just laughed.

Low. Melodic. Infuriating.

"What's funny?" Aurelio's voice was gravel-dipped steel.

She tilted her head, raven-dark hair falling over her face. "You boys act like you've won. Like dragging me here means you've ended the game."

Francesco stepped forward. "You're in chains. In our warehouse. No guards. No weapons. Try again."

Katya smiled, slow and serpentine. "Exactly. I'm here. Because I wanted to be."

Giovanni's jaw flexed. "You think this is a negotiation?"

"I think," she purred, "you've already lost."

Leonardo stepped into the light. His voice was quiet, deadly. "You're not in a position to taunt us."

"No?" Katya leaned back, the chains clinking like wind chimes. "Then why are your hands shaking?"

Aurelio moved so fast it was barely visible - his knife slammed into the chair just inches from her thigh. She didn't flinch.

"You're going to tell us what you're planning," Leonardo said.

She laughed again. Then stopped abruptly, voice slicing through the silence.

"I knew you'd find me. I'm not an idiot. But you? You're fools. You left the most vulnerable bloodlines of your entire empire guarded by only Claudia and Luciano. The princess of the Spanish mafia, and the princess of the Italian one - unguarded. Unwatched."

Carlos stepped forward then, voice tight with disbelief. "You're bluffing. You'd never get near them."

Katya didn't look at him. She just smiled wider.

The brothers stilled.

Something in the air fractured.

"You're lying," Giovanni said.

Katya smiled, eyes gleaming like polished obsidian. "Am I? I know your fortress. I know your guards. I know your patterns. And you forgot the oldest rule in war."

She leaned forward, her voice like silk over broken glass.

"Walls don't keep danger out. They trap innocence in."

...

Back at the De la Vega estate, everything was still.

Sunlight fell through cathedral windows.

Isabella sat cross-legged on the floor, carefully parting Rosabella's hair into neat sections. The younger girl chattered on about gardenias and the pink ribbons she'd seen in the boutique that morning. Claudia was upstairs in her husband's office, flicking through security reports with a lukewarm espresso beside her.

Luciano stood in the doorway, silent, arms folded. Watching. Always watching.

But something wasn't right.