Joanne stepped closer to Dorrent, her fingers trembling slightly as she reached out to smooth the wrinkled collar of his. Her face was tight with an intense, emotional vulnerability, her eyes searching his cold, stone-faced profile.

"You shouldn’t be hiding such catastrophic things from me, Dorrent," Joanne whispered, her voice cracking with a sudden wave of emotion that echoed softly through the foyer. "I am your girlfriend and your soon-to-be wife. We are supposed to be building a future together, and that means we need to be there for one another in these tough, terrifying times. Facing these dangers together is exactly what will grow our relationship into something real, instead of you always locking me out of your troubles."

Dorrent didn’t shift a muscle under her touch. His breathing was short and ragged, his silver eyes flashing with an impatient as his mind tracked the ticking clock in the room. Every single second they stood in this foyer exchanging emotional pleasantries, the poison was continuing to tear through Jannah’s system. He was just about to push her hands away and storm out the front doors when Joanne suddenly dropped her arms, her expression shifting into a line of unexpected clarity.

"But right now, your pride is making you blind," Joanne stated flatly, her voice dropping into a serious, determined register. "I actually have a precise solution to this entire disaster. If it is truly the Notorious Bellero Boren in the picture, then it is going to be very simple to get that antidote from him without you walking into an execution trap."

Dorrent and Shadron both froze instantly, their postures locking into surprise. They exchanged a rapid, bewildered look before turning their gazes back to the beauty queen.

"What the hell are you talking about, Joanne?" Shadron asked, his brow furrowing into a deep line of intense confusion. "How on earth are you going to extract the antidote from the most feared underworld dictator?"

Joanne let out a low, bitter sigh, a smirk touching her beautiful lips. "Because Bellero Boren has always shown interest in me. Over the past two years, at every elite charity gala and cross-district assembly we have both attended, that old man has constantly found ways to corner me. He has made it perfectly clear that he wants me, that he desires to possess me as a trophy, but I have always turned him down with disgust because I belong to you, Dorrent."

Dorrent’s jaw clenched tightly, a growl vibrating inside his chest plates. "And how the hell do you plan on using that disgusting piece of data to get the antidote from his estate?"

"Simple seduction will work perfectly," Joanne declared confidently, planting her high heels firmly on the floor. "That perverted old Bellero won’t turn me down if I personally drive to his stronghold right now and pretend that I have finally changed my mind. I will play along with his dirty games, putting on a flawless performance to stupefy his mind and lower his guard. The exact second he is thoroughly distracted by my proximity, I will locate the antidote get out before his enforcers even realize what happened."

Shadron immediately took a step forward, shaking his head in absolute disapproval, his hands gesturing wildly in the air. "Are you completely losing your mind, Joanne?! You are risking your life! What if your little performance fails and you end up really sleeping with Bellero against your will? That Mafia God is not some foolish businessman you can easily manipulate. He is incredibly cunning, ruthless, and he might turn your little game against you the exact millisecond you walk through his front gates!"

"Nothing like that will ever happen to me, Shadron," Joanne fired right back, her eyes flashing with stubborn pride. "I know exactly how to manage men of his type. I can keep him suspended in a state of anticipation for hours without letting him touch my clothes. The worst thing that can possibly happen is just a simple kiss to keep his suspicions dead."

"Are you seriously telling us you are willing to kiss that filthy old pervert?!" Shadron barked, his face turning pale with disgust as he looked at Dorrent, hoping his friend would launch a veto. "This is completely insane, Dorrent! We can look for other means, we can deploy an extraction team, or we can find another way—"

"No, there is absolutely no time left for alternative plans!" Joanne interrupted sharply, turning her back on Shadron to look into Dorrent’s cold, unreadable face. "You just told me Jannah has less than twenty-four hours to live. If we waste any more time arguing, she will die on your behalf. You need to leave this mission entirely to me. I need to start driving to the Boren sector this exact minute. Dorrent... look at me. You do not need to worry about my personal safety. Bellero wants me alive as his ultimate prize; he cannot kill me."

She reached down, smoothly lifting her leather suitcase from the floorboards, her expression shifting into domestic focus. "Before I head out, I need to drop my things. Which room in this estate will I be staying in from now on?"

Dorrent’s silver eyes swamped with a sudden panic. His primal Alpha instincts completely revolted at the thought of the beauty queen invading his private quarters—the exact master suite where Jannah’s scent was still deeply woven into the sheets, the exact bed where he had diflowered the pale herbalist. He opened his mouth, his lips parting as he prepared to give the wrong answer, intending to banish her to the western guest wing.

But before the wrong words could leave his throat, Shadron nudged his elbow, cutting into the layout with a loud, calculated reply.

"Of course a girlfriend should stay in her boyfriend’s room, Joanne!" Shadron declared smoothly, forcing a supportive smile onto his face to maintain the structural deception. "Dorrent’s suite is already fully prepared at the top of the grand staircase. Go right up, drop your suitcase, and make yourself completely at home."

"Thank you, Shadron," Joanne murmured, a small, satisfied smile touching her lips as she glanced at Dorrent’s rigid, silent frame. She turned on her high heels, her shoes clicking sharply against the marble as she carried her suitcase up the grand stairs, her long golden hair cascading down her trench coat until she disappeared around the upper corridor.

The exact millisecond the door of the master suite clicked shut upstairs, the false smile completely vanished from Shadron’s face. He spun around, his eyes flaring with an intense, suffocating gravity as he stepped into Dorrent’s personal space, his voice dropping into a flat, freezing whisper.

"She’s out of the room, Dorrent," Shadron hissed, his chest heaving as he stared into his best friend’s furious visage. "Now you and I have a lot of things to talk about regarding your manhood."

Dorrent slowly turned his head to face his friend, his eyes swamping with a crimson light as he bared his teeth in a terrifying finality.

"If you ever speak a single syllable about my condition again, Shadron... I will make sure you never draw another breath in this city."