Zachary was desperate to know how she had uncovered his operation.

He ran a shadow empire, dealing with powerful foreign cartels that provided him with absolute protection.

Almost no one knew about it. Aside from his personal assistant, there were no loose ends. The victims were shipped off to black sites, turning a massive profit.

Every single extraction was handled personally by him and his assistant.

His assistant was a professional cleaner who could stage any crime scene to look like a flawless suicide.

For over a decade, he had raked in millions of dollars and lived like a king.

The victims were all registered as accidental deaths. There were never any investigations because he paid off the families to look the other way, though most of his targets were untraceable orphans to begin with.

There was absolutely no way a third party could have known.

Furthermore, Joanna had never even set foot in his private office. He had always been the one to come to her.

He never allowed anyone into his personal workspace. Even VIP clients were entertained in the adjacent conference room.

Joanna savored his absolute terror. The man was a butcher.

Beneath his polished, refined exterior hid a horrifying ruthlessness.

"Do you like my gift, Zachary? Your biggest mistake was trying to play me. If you had just kept your mouth shut, voided the contract, and walked away, I might have kept your secret. We could have even been partners. But you just had to demand the penalty fee. You left me no choice but to send you to prison."

It was the perfect setup. With Zachary behind bars, she could easily swallow the lion's share of his agency.

As for the cartel backing him, if she could make contact, she could take over his route.

Anything Zachary could do, she could do better.

Zachary refused to believe he was being outplayed by her. He glared at her with lethal intensity. "You venomous bitch. I don't buy for a second that you know everything."

"Hehe."

Joanna laughed brightly, looking down at him. "What if I told you I saw everything you did in a dream? Would you believe that?"

Zachary was speechless.

Joanna leaned back elegantly in her wheelchair, her composure absolute, her smile dripping with arrogance. "Isn't it strange, Zachary? I saw your entire operation in my dreams know exactly how you prey on orphans and harvest from

accidental deaths to fuel your black market empire."

Zachary shuddered, refusing to entertain her insane logic.

A dream? What kind of psychotic excuse was that?

There was no such thing as seeing the future.

"It's impossible. Stop trying to bluff me. Look, I can drop the penalty fee."

"Too late," Joanna interrupted sharply "You're a snake, Zachary if I let you walk today, you'll put a bullet in my head tomorrow. So, I'm not giving you the chance."

Showing him mercy today would mean signing her own death warrant tomorrow.

A man like him would burn the world down to tie up a loose end.

Instantly, Zachary's aura darkened, radiating a suffocating wave of murderous intent.

"If you won't let me live, then we'll burn in hell together."

He lunged up, grabbing a heavy ceramic mug from the desk to smash into her skull.

"Freeze! Drop the weapon!"

A squad of police officers burst through the door.

Seeing the uniforms, Zachary

flinched violently. Pure terror flooded

his eyes as he looked back at the

woman in the wheelchair. She had never intended to negotiate. Whether he waived the fee,

Joanna wanted him dead