David thought he had broken the only woman who could stop him

The power failure plunged the majority of the foundation headquarters into absolute darkness, but the tactical advantage remained entirely ours. Marcus and his team possessed state-of-the-art night vision optics, while the mercenaries trapped in the sub-basement were entirely blind, cut off from the main facility by the manually locked blast doors.

Within ten agonizing minutes, the firefight below abruptly ended.

"Base, this is Hawk One," Marcus reported, his breathing heavy but controlled. "Both hostile tangos are neutralized. We secured their comms equipment. They were communicating with a remote handler."

"Bring the comms equipment to the operations center immediately," I ordered, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

When Marcus arrived, he placed a highly encrypted satellite phone on the desk. It was still connected to a live, open channel.

I picked up the phone. The silence on the other end was heavy, filled with an arrogant, familiar anticipation.

"Your mercenaries failed, David," I said, my voice echoing with terrifying, absolute authority in the dark room. "They are neutralized, and the FBI is currently tracing the satellite signal of this exact phone call."

A sharp, furious intake of breath echoed through the speaker. David realized instantly that his flawless, expensive plan had spectacularly imploded.

"You think you won, Sarah?" David snarled, the polished facade completely breaking, revealing the desperate, pathetic abuser beneath. "I will never stop hunting you. I will use every dime I have left to burn your little foundation to the ground."

"You don't have any dimes left, David," I replied smoothly, a cold, victorious smile touching my lips. "While your mercenaries were busy in my basement, Elena used the financial routing numbers from their fake maintenance contract to locate the final, hidden offshore trust you used to finance this hit. We just seized it. You are completely bankrupt, you are a federal fugitive, and the marshals are closing in on your location right now."