Chapter 30
thirty
Gabriel
It's easy to fall into a routine and live as if no one exists. Just the two of us and the bed.
But the reality is harsher than that. Especially in our world, where those like Victor can come and crush it in a heartbeat.
It’s not just Victor; I thought I could trust Boris to keep Valentina safe, and I thought none of my old life would ever come near her. I was wrong. Everything came back to bite me.
The funny thing is, I couldn’t have cared less about seeing Naomi there, as much as I hated to see Victor near Valentina.
Reason number one that I’m waiting for Boris. He should have known better. There will be consequences for stabbing me in the back.
“I didn’t expect you.” Boris fidgets with the paper on his desk.
“But you should have. Did you think I would just let it slip, the way you blindsided me? If you were anyone else, you would be bleeding on the floor by now.”
“Look, Gabriel, I’m truly sorry. But this is how it works. We need to fight other clubs; we’re still amateurs. We need…”
I cut off the nonsense he’s spouting. “Don’t bullshit me, Boris. We both know how things work. I understand the amateurs' fight. But I also know very well how things work with Victor and my line of work.” I walk toward his desk until my thighs hit the edge. “What does he have on you?”
He looks to the side. “It’s nothing; it’s just a misunderstanding. I will get through it.”
“What does he have? And before you think it's about you, it's not. It’s because my wife was supposed to be safe here. Like I was a long time ago.”
He throws the paper onto the table. “The gym isn’t working like it was before. I needed the money, and the bank didn’t want to lend me any, so I went to Ricky.”
I shake my head. He should have known better. “How does Victor come into the picture?”
“I don’t know how he found out. He threatened to take the gym away, pay off my debt, and throw me out. This is my legacy, Gabriel. I cannot just be thrown out.”
“No, you can’t. What deal did you make with Victor?”
“That he can come here and train Naomi, and she can spar with other fighters.” He looks down.
“What else?”
“He explicitly asked for Valentina to spar with.”
“I see.” I narrow my eyes at him. “How much money do you owe Ricky?”
“More than I bargained for.”
My voice hardens. “I asked how much.”
“Almost a mil.” My brows raise. Is he serious? How the fuck did he get so deep? The gym isn’t worth a quarter of that.
“I don’t even want to know how this happened.
” I shake my head in disbelief. “This is what’s going to happen.
You will go and pay the debt with the money I give you.
” I pin him with a commanding look. “But before you go, you're going to sign the ownership of this place over to Valentina. You can stay here, be a trainer, or you can retire.”
Relief washes over his face. “Thank you…”
I cut him off. “I will send the money with one of my men, who will bring the contract and will accompany you to Ricky’s.”
“What did you want to show me?” Valentina looks at me suspiciously.
I smirk. “Close your eyes.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “I don’t like surprises.”
“You’ll like this one.”
She purses her lips, her eyes focusing on mine. “Very well. I trust you,” she says and closes her eyes.
The flutter in my heart stops me in my tracks before I smile and take her hand in mine, leading her inside.
I lead her toward the desk. “You can open your eyes now.”
She blinks awake, confusion shaping her expression as she takes in the spotless room. “Has Boris been decorating? If so, this doesn’t look like his style. Where did all the papers and stuff go?”
My smirk deepens. “No, Boris hasn’t been decorating, because this office isn’t his anymore.”
She whips her head toward me, startled. “What are you talking about?”
Instead of answering, I step closer, sliding a strand of her hair behind her ear, because I need my hands on her when I tell her this. “Do you like it?”
She looks around again, suspicious. “Why does it matter?”
This time, I let the smile show. “Because it’s yours.”
Her eyes widen. “Mine? Wait, what? How? Why? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying,” I murmur, savoring the shock on her face, “you’re the new owner of this entire gym.”
A smile flickers to life, bright and wild, then collapses just as fast. “But how? What about Boris?”
I tilt my head, enjoying the fire she tries so hard to hide. “Thank me properly, and I might tell you.”
She breathes out a shaky laugh. “That’s not fair. Because as much as I love the idea, I’m terrified to know what you did to make it happen.”
I take her chin, forcing her eyes to meet mine. “You want the real reason?” My voice is low, raw. “It's because I love you and I’m giving you what you deserve.”
Her eyes flash. “And I love that you think I deserve this.” But there’s still something sharp beneath her softness. “You still haven’t answered me about Boris.”
I shrug. “Nothing to be scared of. Boris made poor judgment decisions, and it cost him his gym.”
She turns from me, taking the room in slowly like she’s absorbing every inch I tailored to her.
The heavy, dark desk is clean. The trophies and belts are displayed like a kingdom she now commands.
The deep red sofa was picked just for her.
She crosses to the small fridge and laughs when she sees inside. “You thought of my cherry cola.”
I grimace. “I’ll bring you anything you want. As long as it puts a smile on your face, there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do.” She watches me like she’s trying to decide whether to melt or ignite. Then she walks to the door, closes it. and turns the lock with deliberate slowness.
When she faces me, her eyes are no longer shining; they’re burning.
She gathers her hair into a small ponytail, and the simple movement punches all the air from my lungs. She knows what she’s doing. She knows exactly what she does to me.
I smirk, slow, hungry, as she walks toward me.
When she reaches me, her hands press to my chest, guiding me back.
Not forceful, just certain I’ll follow. My legs hit the sofa, and I drop into it, eyes locked on hers.
Valentina lowers herself to her knees in front of me, and the sight of her there, choosing it hits harder than anything else ever has.
Her mischievous eyes meet mine, and she grins.
“Remember when we first met, and I told you that you needed to earn the right to have me on my knees?” I nod and smile. “Guess what? You just did.”
And in that moment, her kneeling for no one but me, her trust a weapon and a gift, I know one truth with absolute certainty:
There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
Nothing I wouldn’t give.
Nothing I wouldn’t burn.
She wants, and I provide.
She asks, and I obey.
She looks at me like that… and I surrender willingly.
Because she is the one thing in this world I will do anything for.
Anything.
When Naomi cheated on me, I thought she would be the only woman in my life. I never expected or wanted to have feelings for another woman again. That was why I agreed to the marriage. I thought it would be just an agreement, but it was more than I bargained for.
Looking forward to getting home, knowing there’s someone waiting for me, was never so appealing as it is now.
Settling into new routines and agreements was never better. Going home early just to see her and surprise her with a ticket to a champion fight she was eyeing the other day was never on the cards.
Even with all the good stuff, I still feel like there is a storm on the horizon. That this is just a dream in some other dimension of my mind.
Maybe it isn't our relationship; maybe it's all that is going on in the Cosa Nostra. The fact that we’re still searching for Sabatini and that it has been quiet lately, even before everything that happened with Salvatore.
But that also might be a coincidence, or the fact that Salvatore is being the monster everyone was afraid of.
I grab a bouquet of flowers on my way home and hide the tickets inside. I enter the penthouse with one thing on my mind. Valentina.
The second I’m inside, something in me settles, like her presence alone is a lighthouse dragging a drowning man ashore. I don’t call for her. I don’t have to. My body already knows the path, pulling me up the stairs toward the soft humming of a vaguely familiar melody.
I stop at the doorway, and my brows knit as I look at the scene in front of me. Valentina sits cross-legged on our bed, an AirPod tucked in her ear, completely lost in her own world. But it’s what’s spread out in front of her that punches the air out of my lungs.
Clippings. Photographs.
Of me.
My eyes narrow, slow and predatory, taking inventory. Newspaper headlines. Old fight pictures. Years of my life laid out like some private shrine. She hasn’t noticed me yet, so I step inside quietly, setting the flowers on the commode near the door.
My legs hit the edge of the bed, and only then does her head lift.
Green eyes lock on mine, glowing with something soft and startlingly sincere.
“You’re home,” she whispers, smiling. Then she glances at the items again, and I follow her gaze.
“This,” she says, picking up an ancient ticket stub, “was my first underground fight. Nico snuck me in behind my father’s back.
” Her eyes flick up to mine. “It was your fight. The first time I ever saw you. I was fourteen, and you flipped my entire world upside down. You were my idol. My… celebrity crush.” She laughs softly. “I watched every fight you ever had.”
My heartbeat stutters.
“I stalked you for years,” she adds casually. “Bought every magazine you appeared in.”
I blink. “You stalked me?”
“As much as I could.” She shrugs like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
“And later? When we met?”
She picks up a photo; one of my earliest fights, with Naomi in the background. Old memories. Old wounds. They scrape against old insecurities.
“I told you,” she says gently. “I knew exactly who you were in that bar. I wanted you. And you had no idea who I was. It was perfect.”
My voice drops. “And our marriage?”
Her lips curl into a sinful little smile. “Destiny.” A beat. “Well… destiny, and a little work. I might’ve made sure every candidate my brother suggested for you refused the arrangement.”
I just stare at her.
Here I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for something to happen, and I would wake up from this alternate universe where Valentina would leave me, only to get something I never expected. Relief washes over me, contentment that, after everything, I found love.
I sink onto the edge of the bed in front of her, needing to look her dead in the eyes. “Let me get this straight,” I say quietly. “You had a crush on me. You stalked me. And you made damn sure you were the one who married me?”
“Yes.”
Something in me detonates.
Heat. Want. Possession. A spark catching and roaring into a full inferno.
My shoulders shake. Christ, I’m actually laughing. A deep, uncontrollable sound that tears out of me. Valentina’s brows knit in confusion, but before she can speak, I grab the back of her neck and pull her to me. Our foreheads collide, my breath fanning across her lips.
“You silly, reckless girl,” I whisper against her mouth. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me. I fucking love you.”
“You're not mad?” she asks, breathless.
“Mad?” I laugh again, dark and disbelieving. “My wife just confessed she’s been obsessed with me for years. I’m not mad, Valentina. I’m fucking ecstatic.”
My fingers slide from her neck into her hair, fisting it gently but firmly, tilting her head back so I can look deep into her wide green eyes. “Were you ever planning to tell me about this?”
Her breath catches. “If I wasn’t afraid you would think I was crazy, I would have told you before.”
I drag my thumb across her lower lip, feeling it tremble.
“You are a little crazy.” I shake my head slowly.
“You kept pieces of me even before I ever knew your name. You made sure you’d be the woman I put the ring on.
” My mouth ghosts along her jaw, barely touching.
“Crazy for me.” I tighten my grip on her hair just enough to make her gasp.
“And I like that too much.” I lower my mouth to her skin, running my lips along her jaw.
“You confess something like this to me,” I whisper.
“You’d better be ready for me to show you what it does to me. ”
Her fingers curl into my shirt, pulling me closer. “Show me.”