King of Envy

Vuk fumes about Emmanuelle’s audacity. He meets with Roman and confronts him about the lack of progress with the Brotherhood. Roman attempts to bargain for more manpower and resources to take out the other faction in the Brotherhood. He proposes to use Ayana as bait, which Vuk vehemently refuses. Roman reminds him that Ayana does not truly know how horrific he can be in his torture. He suggests she wouldn’t want Vuk should she know his true self, then leaves.

The next Monday, Emmanuelle files her lawsuit. Ayana meets with Vuk, and he brings her to the famous bingo game at the seniors’ center he once told her about. Delighted, Ayana plays with him, and he explains how he’d stumbled upon the game because he once needed to close a deal with a CEO whose father was a resident at the center. The CEO had insisted on seeing his father at the time, and they closed the deal at the center. Vuk enjoyed the bingo night and returned even though the CEO’s father died soon after they closed the deal. He tells Ayana his own father would have loved the game-playing and camaraderie if he were still alive.

Ayana then reveals that her father is the reason she signed with Beaumont. He’d had a serious injury in the kitchen, and they did not have enough money for proper treatment. When Hank scouted her, she felt it was too good to be true but had accepted it anyway. She explains Beaumont’s extortion and expresses her concern at being blacklisted by the fashion industry.

Ayana then invites Vuk to her home, but he declines. When she enters her apartment, she finds an envelope with pictures of a man’s mutilated corpse and a message that informs her she needs to know who Vuk truly is.

Dominic sends Vuk the information he requested on who was funding the Brotherhood. Pleased, Vuk goes to meet Ayana at the shooting range the next day. She confronts him about the photos, and he admits to being the person responsible. He is unapologetic about what he did, as he believes that justice only comes through retribution. Ayana panics but finds that she is not afraid of Vuk. She asks for time, and Vuk lets her go.

She wanders away and inadvertently stumbles near Beaumont, where she encounters Hank. They argue, and he accuses her of being ungrateful. As she is about to head into a coffee shop, someone sedates and kidnaps her.

Vuk is consumed by anxiety over Ayana and tries to distract himself with a boxing match. He thinks of who might have sent the photos to her but can’t figure out who the culprit is. Sean then calls to tell him Ayana has gone missing. Vuk is panicked and enraged as Sean informs him of their investigation so far. He demands that they bring him Hank.

Ayana wakes up bound to a chair and sitting in front of a dismembered corpse. Terrorized, she tries to think of a way to escape, but can’t find any tools or objects nearby to help her. She wonders what Vuk would do, and the thought makes her regret their last conversation. Her situation gives her a new appreciation for Vuk’s ruthlessness.

She hears footsteps approaching, and when they stop before her, she recognizes her kidnapper.

Vuk beats Hank to know where Ayana is. After a time, Hank mentions that Emmanuelle has also been missing. Through Dominic’s investigation, Vuk knows that Emmanuelle is in fact the leader of the Brotherhood’s second faction and Shepherd’s sister. Both of them came from a small village in France, which, when Vuk had initially looked into the Beaumont agency, had made him suspicious. Emmanuelle has been funding the Brotherhood through a sex trafficking ring.

Sean receives a call from his men investigating the scene to tell him they discovered a silver button covered in soil from Long Island. Roman calls Vuk, and he insists on meeting him in person to share intel.

Wentworth explains that he is the mastermind behind Ayana’s kidnapping and that he’d entered into an arrangement with the Brotherhood: He gets her, and they get Vuk. He tells her how Vuk beat him after he sexually assaulted her and tells her of the Brotherhood’s plan to use her as bait. Ayana promises they won’t get away with it as Wentworth walks away. She reexamines her surroundings and finds that she can move her right foot. She believes she can use her stiletto heels as a weapon.

Vuk, Roman, Sean, and his team arrive at the warehouse where Ayana is kept. Using stealth, they enter the warehouse, and gunshots rain upon them. Sean and his team usher Vuk ahead and cover him. Carefully, Vuk makes his way to where they have detained Ayana, but as he goes to enter the room, Roman disarms and captures him.

Ayana frees her right leg and her stiletto from her foot. She throws herself to the ground, and just as she’s about to use her pointed heel to cut away the rope around her hands, she hears gunshots. Soon, Vuk enters, bound and maneuvered by Roman. They are accompanied by Emmanuelle and Wentworth.

Vuk fumes as he assesses Ayana’s injuries from afar. Emmanuelle reveals that the dismembered corpse belongs to Enzo, a member of Sean’s security team whom Vuk had assigned to tail Emmanuelle. She thanks Roman for double-crossing Vuk and bringing him to her.

She then explains how she’d planned to take over the Brotherhood and worked in the shadows, since no one suspected a woman to be the leader of the second faction. Though she supported Shepherd on the surface, ultimately, she was ready to kill him to gain power. She explains how she and Wentworth used Ayana to toy with Vuk’s emotions. When Vuk spits in her face, she takes out a gun and shoots him in the leg. Roman disappears, and Emmanuelle orders Wentworth to take care of Ayana.

As Emmanuelle is about to shoot Vuk again, Shadow the cat appears out of nowhere and lunges for Wentworth’s face. While everyone is distracted, Vuk attacks Emmanuelle, but she gains the upper hand. When she is about to kill Vuk, Ayana, having freed herself, shoots and kills her. Vuk kills Wentworth in turn.

Vuk collects Shadow, just as Roman announces the warehouse is about to explode. They make for the exit, but Ayana falls behind. As fire erupts, Vuk reenters the burning building, confronting his pyrophobia, and retrieves her. When they are both safely out of the warehouse, Vuk falls unconscious.

Days later, Ayana is still in the hospital, recovering from all of her injuries. She goes to visit Vuk in his room. She remembers the events of the warehouse, how she’d escaped from Wentworth’s grasp and taken his gun to save Vuk. She berates Vuk for agreeing to Roman’s plan of making it seem as if he’d double-crossed Vuk to hand him over to Emmanuelle so they could get close enough to kill her and save Ayana.

Vuk offers to put Ayana in touch with the therapist who helped him when his brother died. Ayana brings up their last conversation and tells Vuk that she understands why he’s had to break the rules to survive. She says that she accepts him, all of him, and wants to remain with him so long as he doesn’t indulge in gratuitous violence. They kiss.

In the aftermath of Emmanuelle’s death, Vuk has taken charge of Emmanuelle’s sex trafficking survivors, providing them with money, transport to go home, and access to mental health experts.

He attends a fashion event with Ayana, and he notices how much she’s missed participating in the modeling world. Vuk eventually brings her to the private bathrooms, and they have sex. They tell each other they love one another.

Ten months later, Vuk and Ayana throw a birthday party for Shadow the cat. Though Vuk grumbles, he has nevertheless grown fond and protective of him. Dominic finds Vuk and calls in the favor he owes him to find Roman for him. He endures the rest of the party out of love for Ayana.

Two months later, Ayana and Vuk are in Finland to attend a perfume workshop. The instructor boxes up the perfumes Ayana has selected, and after she leaves them, Vuk prompts Ayana to open the box. In it, she finds a wedding ring, and Vuk proposes to her. Ayana happily accepts.