Page 34 of The Hunter's Empire

I already dislike the look in his eyes.

"You come to Ireland with me personally."

I stare at him.

"No assistants. No security detail. Nofiancé." His voice remains calm. "Just you and me."

Every instinct I possess immediately rejects the idea. It’s too risky. Too intimate. Too dangerous. And he knows it.

"You cannot seriously expect me to agree to that."

"I do not expect." He says softly. "I decide whether I work with someone."

That arrogance again.

Domenico walks toward me, stopping close enough that I have to tilt my head slightly to maintain eye contact.

"Once this starts," he says quietly, "there is no walking away from it, Elf."

"Not from the job." His gaze drops briefly to my mouth before returning to my eyes. "And not from the consequences that come with it."

The warning alone should make me leave. Instead, I hold his stare and feel something terrifying settle inside me. Because part of me already knows I am going to say yes. Not because I trust him. Not because this is safe. But because somewhere beneath the danger, beneath the manipulation and tension and mind games… I want to see what happens next.

The realization is reckless enough to frighten me. Still, the word leaves my mouth anyway. "Yes."

Domenico’s expression darkens slightly at my answer. Like he knew from the beginning that eventually, I would choose him over caution.

Chapter 9

Zora

Isit at the head of the conference table with files spread across polished black wood while security reports cycle across the screens mounted along the walls. Around me, half a dozen members of my operations team work quietly through encrypted documents, surveillance stills, and intercepted financial records tied to the Keegans.

The atmosphere in the room has changed over the past hour. What started as a strategic review now feels heavier.

Erin stands near the main screen with a tablet in her hands, highlighting sections of a financial map connected to Irish shipping routes.

"The deeper we go into the Keegans’ network, the worse it gets." She says. "These people do not just operate through criminal channels. They have institutional protection."

She taps the screen, pulling up another set of files.

"Three investigations into their offshore accounts disappeared within eighteen months. Two journalists vanished before publication. One customs official resigned suddenly and relocated his entire family within forty-eight hours after attempting to flag irregularities."

Quiet tension settles across the room. Nobody interrupts her.

One of the analysts near the end of the table speaks next. "We also found evidence of erased transactions moving through shell corporations tied to government contracts. Someone with serious influence is cleaning their records before regulators can touch them."

I lean back slightly in my chair, scanning the reports in front of me while keeping my expression unreadable. Inside, however, the scale of this operation is becoming impossible to ignore.

This is no longer about leverage or acquisition pressure. The Keegans are embedded too deeply. Money. Politics. Shipping. Law enforcement. A system built carefully enough that removing one piece barely affects the rest.

Which means if we move against them, we cannot afford mistakes.

"We keep everything compartmentalized." I say calmly. "No unnecessary communication channels. No digital trails beyond internal encryption."

The room quiets immediately.

I continue reviewing the file in front of me before looking toward Erin. "I will handle the Ireland portion personally."