37. LACEY
Chapter thirty-seven
T he second we stepped out of the elevator, I saw a man I recognized from the night Nik had burned through The Sacrifice. He was already waiting, standing beside the open door of a fancy Bentley.
“Hello,” I said politely.
Nik gestured toward him. “Lacey, this is Rory. He’s my second. I trust him with my life—and so can you.”
He said it nonchalantly, as though it were nothing. It was a casual reminder that after three weeks cocooned in Nik’s luxury confinement, I was stepping back into a world where death and violence were an everyday occurrence.
Nik guided me gently inside the vehicle, then settled beside me in the back seat—but his focus was miles away. Rory slid into the front, and with a quiet click, he raised the privacy screen.
The cabin was filled with nervous anticipation.
Nik didn’t speak, just pulled out his phone and began scrolling. A few seconds later, music poured through the speakers—low, moody, orchestral. But not comforting.
I glanced at him. His expression was unreadable, his jaw tight, his eyes distant. He looked bone tired—like a man who hadn’t slept in days. The angst he carried wasn’t just in his posture; it was in the very air around him.
Something simmered beneath his stillness, and it set me on edge. Maybe going on a date with a man who was in the middle of a killing spree wasn’t such a good idea.
I looked away, swallowing the knot in my throat, and focused on the blur of city lights as the car drove through the streets. I’d expected a conversation—maybe a smile and a little flirtation.
But Nik was somewhere else.
The Bentley slowed as we pulled off Eleventh Avenue and headed toward the Hudson.
Rory turned into a parking lot just in front of Pier 86, where the USS Intrepid sat silently in the water, waiting to receive tourists from the sea, air and space museum.
The view was nice, with the city lights glinting off the river, but it was an odd place to stop.
Not exactly romantic. Not exactly private.
I glanced over at Nik, wondering where he was taking me.
The car eased into the parking spot, and Nik finally put his phone away.
For a long moment, he stared out the window, the engine humming softly between us. Then he turned, bracing his elbow on one leg. I sensed that what he was about to say wouldn’t be something I wanted to hear.
“I’ve done everything I can to buy you time.
” He flicked his thumb against his first finger.
Was he nervous…or just eager to get whatever this was over with?
“I gave you a safe space to work through your feelings and think about your future. Room to breathe after what happened. But the clock’s run out, Lacey. ”
The finality in his voice was unnerving.
“This can’t go on forever. Not with Delgado still alive. Not with how many people are watching us now. You don’t get to stay on the sidelines anymore.”
I couldn’t breathe. My future hung in the balance.
“This is your life, and I want you to be clear on your options.”
He leaned back slightly.
“This is where you choose.”
I blinked. “What?”
“One way leads to Teterboro. My jet is fueled and waiting. If you choose that option, you’ll fly to Tacoma, Washington, where my sister Anastasia will help you start a new life.
You’ll have a new name. A new identity. You can live a happy, normal life and even work in the theater if you want.
No more mafia. No one will be able to find you.
I’ll build the life you ask for—whatever you want. ”
“Oh—Aria mentioned Anastasia was your twin sister.”
His mouth curved upward faintly, though his eyes stayed serious.
“Yeah. Ana’s always been the only person on this earth who gave a damn about me.
” He tapped two fingers against his chest. “She’s got the other half of my pendant.
I bought them when we were kids, after our parents shipped her off to a boarding school in upstate New York.
Hardly saw her after that, but I wanted her to know I was still close. Always part of the same pack.”
I swallowed, picturing the pendant’s shape in my mind—he’d been both protective and a predator since he was a kid.
But he didn’t linger on it. “The other option,” he said, eyes locking onto mine, “is to marry me.”
I stared at him stunned, my pulse racing.
“Wh—what?” My world tilted. “Nik…”
“It’s one or the other, Lacey.”
I tried to open the door. It wouldn’t budge.
He didn’t move. “You can’t walk away from this. Delgado made sure of that. The only way you live to see your next birthday is if you vanish completely…or become mine.”
The blood drained from my face.
“You don’t get it,” I snapped. “I can’t just erase who I am. My identity isn’t just about me. It’s my parents. My sister. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t even have a shot at anything. It’s their legacy too.”
Nik rubbed his forehead but remained silent.
“I’m so tired of having my heart broken,” I said, the words catching in my throat. “I didn’t come to New York to be someone’s wife or disappear from my friends and family. I came to make my dreams happen.”
My emotions surged as his ultimatum sank in.
“I love to perform. I need to. I didn’t just roll out of bed one day and think, Hey, maybe I’ll get famous. No. I trained. I sacrificed. I worked as hard as anyone else and waited my turn, time and time again in those damn audition lines.”
I looked him dead in the eye. “So, fuck you and your arrogance if you think I’m just some wide-eyed girl chasing fairy tales. I earned this.”
He narrowed his eyes at me but didn’t interrupt.
“And marriage?” I huffed. “I’m twenty. I’m not ready. I have so much more I want to do. And if there’s one thing you need to understand about me, Nik, it’s that I won’t let anyone control me.”
I fiddled with the latch on my purse. Surely, there had to be another option.
“I’ve always followed my gut. My instincts. My choices are made by me and me alone. So yeah, you might be the hottest man walking, but that doesn’t mean I want to belong to you.”
There was a long silence. Then Nik leaned back slowly, keeping his focus on me. The heat in his stare was unbearable.
“You’re either mine,” he said evenly, “or you go to Tacoma.”
My stomach turned.
“And let me warn you; if you think you can escape Tacoma, come back here, or go home to Tennessee, you won’t survive a day. If you think I’m a monster—fine. But you have no idea what Delgado is, what he does to women…innocent women.”
His lip curled, his jaw tight with disgust.
“Yes,” he said, leaning closer until he was inches away from my face, “I was born and raised as a weapon. A bratva heir. Yes, I will train you to be my wife, my partner, and my lover. But maybe that’s better than being some cartel animal’s plaything—or dead in a shipping container halfway to nowhere. ”
I swallowed hard.
“The only way I can keep you safe is to make you mine or hide you so deeply no one will ever know Lacey Grace Oakley existed.”
He let that hang in the air between us.
“No more fighting me,” he said.
His voice dropped to a near-whisper.
“Your choice, Lacey. Now decide.”
Outside, the Hudson shimmered under the moonlight. And here I sat, caged like some animal. I had no good options. Yes, he was offering me a clean slate with a new name and a safe life.
But I’d never been the kind of girl who ran toward easy.
And I’d die of boredom in a month.
Nik remained motionless, watching me. His face was unreadable, but the tension in his shoulders told me this moment mattered more than he’d admit.
The significance of what he was offering was clear: a one-way exit from everything I’d known…or a plunge straight into the deep end of a life most women couldn’t survive.
A marriage to Nik would be far from easy.
It would be brutal and complicated.
Heaven help me though…it would be thrilling, taboo even—just like watching Sage Lockwood in the shower all those years ago.
Despite how much his violent and dominating ways scared me, I also knew he could offer me something no safe life ever could.
Nik would ruin me for any other man—and I would enjoy every second of it.
My heart pounded. My thoughts spun.
And my core…clenched.
Not just from fear. From desire.
He was a slow-burning fuse that promised my detonation.
“I’ll marry you,” I said quietly, “but on my terms.”
He arched a brow. “You think you get to set the terms?”
“Yes.” I met his gaze head on. “If I choose you, I do.”
He didn’t interrupt but waited patiently for me to continue.
I took a breath. “No violence against me. Ever.”
“The only pain I cause you,” he said, his voice as rough as whiskey mixed with honey, “will be that which you beg for.”
A shiver slid down my spine.
“I want to keep working,” I continued, “as an actress. I don’t want to be locked away like some porcelain doll.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Until we win the war against Delgado, you don’t work. You don’t leave my side. Not for one damn second.”
I nodded slowly. That one I could understand. “Fine. Temporary house arrest. I’ll survive.”
He eyed me warily, waiting for my next ultimatum.
“No children,” I said next, “unless we both agree. I’m too young, and I have things I want to do first.”
He tilted his head. “Your body, your call. Always.”
That caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected him to give in on that one freely.
“And fidelity…” I said last. “No cheating. If you want a wife, I’d better be the only one warming your bed.”
His voice dropped, becoming dangerous and raw. “When I make a vow, it’s unbreakable.”
I bit my lip. Had this man just agreed to everything I’d said?
He leaned in slightly, his eyes flickering down my body and back to my mouth.
“You’ll be my wife, and you will be obedient,” he commanded. “And submissive to me—in all ways that matter. Public and private.”
Heat flushed my skin, but I held his gaze.
He smirked.
“I will kill anyone who touches you.”
I didn’t flinch.