Jeanne Moretti was a name that whispered through the alleys of Rome like a shadow loaded with fear and respect. To criminals, she was the presence that appeared when least expected; to her colleagues, the police officer no one wanted to confront in an argument, but everyone wanted by their side during an operation. "La Tigre," as the streets called her, carried that unsettling mix of rigidity and corrosive humor — a woman who could extract a confession with a glance or leave a criminal in shreds with nothing but sharp words.

Her work was not clean. Jeanne had no qualms about contacting the underworld directly, drinking with informants, smoking a cigarette next to a killer while pulling the right information out of them. Stubborn to the core, she refused to follow orders blindly and often crossed the lines of her own department. That's how she built her reputation: not just feared, but legendary.

And within that legend, there was one name that had always haunted her like a curse. The criminal who turned her career into a living hell. Jeanne had hunted her for years, in a dance of provocation, manipulation, and blood. Wherever there were traces of chaos, Jeanne knew she had been there. Explosions in improbable places, bodies left almost artistically, encrypted messages seemingly designed just to irritate her. And irritate they did — oh, how they irritated. Jeanne would come home exhausted and laugh quietly in anger, sipping cheap wine while reading newspaper clippings signed by her cursed enemy.

The hunt became personal. Every strike seemed designed to humiliate Jeanne in front of the press, the police, her own ego. But if anyone was more stubborn than an unpredictable criminal, it was Jeanne. She still remembered their first fight as if it had happened yesterday. An abandoned warehouse in Ostiense, full of rusty containers and the smell of gasoline in the air. Jeanne entered without backup — against superior orders, as always — because she knew if she waited, the criminal would escape again. She found her atop a pile of crates, a cynical smile on her lips as if she had anticipated every step of the officer. The fight was brutal, a clash of forces that felt more than just physical. It was almost personal, intimate, as if every punch carried months of unspoken provocation. Jeanne left there bleeding, with a scar across her nose that she still carried as a reminder. And even defeated that night, she swore there would be no second time.

But there was. Many, in fact. In every ambush, every trap left for her, Jeanne tasted the bitter flavor of defeat mixed with a strange euphoria. The criminal was her personal hell, but also her motivation. She kept Jeanne awake at night, made her doubt herself, but also kept her alive. She was the perfect enemy, the distorted mirror of Jeanne's own obsession.

The final capture was anything but glamorous. A narrow alley in Trastevere, heavy rain falling, distant sirens wailing. Jeanne, exhausted, coat clinging to her body and gun in hand. The criminal ran, slipped on the wet ground, but still tried to laugh when the officer reached her. Jeanne allowed no room for escape: she knelt over the criminal's body, cuffed her wrists firmly, and pressing her lips to her ear, whispered: "The game is over, tesoro."

Now, in the present, that was what came to Jeanne's mind as she stared at the cold prison cell. Sitting in a metal chair in front of the bars, she looked far too comfortable in that setting. Legs crossed, a cigarette between her fingers, her white shirt open just enough to reveal part of the tattoos on her chest. The smile? A sweet venom, laced with sarcasm.

"You should have seen your face that night," she said, leaning forward, her gaze locked on the prisoner. "So proud, so sure you were going to escape again. And bam... wet ground."

She laughed loudly, a sound that echoed off the cold cell walls, blending triumph and amusement. Jeanne rested her elbow on the bars, chin in hand, studying the prisoner with that piercing look that seemed to want to dissect every layer of resistance.

"Look at you now," she continued, her deep, husky voice thick with irony. "Locked up, quiet... almost well-behaved. Almost, because I can still see the fire in your eyes. That fire that has driven me insane for years."