Chapter 14
NIKOLAI
I peel my eyes open, find Elle's hair spilled across my chest, and freeze.
Elle's in my bed.
Elle's in my bed.
Elle is in my goddamn bed.
She's curled on her side, hair a messy halo on my pillow, breathing even. Peaceful. I want to stay right here, hold her until she wakes, but my phone screams urgent.
Careful not to wake her, I reach for it.
When I see the messages from Uncle Viktor, my blood goes cold. If he wants to meet right now, without wasting a second, somewhere in the world, shit's hit the roof.
I extract myself from Elle's arms, shower in ten minutes, dress in five. No coffee yet, and not nearly enough patience to be screamed at by a seventy-year-old Bratva king with a temper and an aversion to reasonable volume. But there's no time.
I drive to his office. Walk in without knocking.
He doesn't look up. Just gestures for me to close the door.
"Tell me what's wrong."
He finally raises his eyes, and there's that look. The same one I saw when he found out a trusted soldier had been leaking intel to a rival crew in Brighton Beach. That guy lost a kneecap. I might lose something worse.
"What the fuck is this about?" I ask, slower this time.
"Gayle." Viktor's voice is flat. "She fucked us."
He tosses a manila folder toward me. It slides across the desk like a death certificate.
I open it. Property maps. Legal filings. Land disputes. Court cases, over a handful of them, already reeking of trouble.
"She sold us a bleeding asset," he hisses. "Two of the three parcels are in active litigation, and the third has a goddamn sinkhole forming under it."
"Are you serious?" I flip a page. Zoning issues everywhere. "How did we miss this?"
"We didn't miss it. She hid it."
"But fixing the sinkhole would cost..."
"Triple what we paid." Viktor slams his hand on the desk. "That bitch knew. She had to."
The facts line up in my head like dominoes. Gayle Donovan, the queen of control. She kept her daughter locked away like treasure to be bartered, and she sold us property the same way: wrapped in silk, rotting underneath.
I knew she signed off too fast. Too easy.
Of course she knew. She didn't just know. She planned it. Every word, every signature, every smile.
She set the trap.
And we walked right into it.
I close the folder. Deadly calm. "What do you want me to do?"
Viktor leans back, steepling his fingers like he's the goddamn Pope about to hand down absolution. Or war.
"We cancel the deal. She keeps her cursed land, and we take our money back. I'm not losing one more dime to her schemes."
The words hit like a bullet to the ribs.
I force my face to stay blank. Don't react. Don't give them shit. I've played this game my whole life.
But inside, my brain is sprinting. I know exactly how this ends if Viktor pulls the plug.
They take the deal back, and Elle goes with it. I hand her over like she was never mine. Just like that. Gone.
And I'm not okay with that. Not even close.
I've given up a lot for this family. Blood. Bones. Entire parts of myself I won't get back. I'm not giving up my wife, even if I haven't said that word out loud yet. Even if the idea of calling her that still makes me feel like someone swapped my brain for a stranger's.
"There are other ways," I say, voice steady despite the dryness in my throat. "Let me handle Gayle."
Viktor raises an eyebrow. "And how exactly will you do that?"
"I'll get a reduction on the price, or make her throw in another property to compensate." I lean forward. "The Donovan portfolio is extensive. There are other assets worth having."
My uncle reads me instantly. "You're that desperate to keep the girl?"
"I'm that desperate not to let Gayle win."
He leans back. Something proud crosses his face, like I'm finally passing a test he's been running. "Then renegotiate," he says after a long beat. "You get us a better deal, we keep her. Otherwise, she goes back with the land."
Goes back makes my chest tighten like I've been drop-kicked.
"I'll talk to her," I say.
Viktor shrugs. "Try it your way. One shot. If she laughs in your face, it's over."
He's giving me this chance because he knows I won't screw it up. Because I never have.
And because somewhere under all his ruthlessness, he likes her too.
If he's testing me, fine. I've been acing his tests since I was ten.
Gayle's penthouse is disgusting in the way only inherited wealth can be. Everything is white. Chairs you can't sit on. Floors that glare at your shoes. Art that cost six figures just to be ugly on purpose.
The building belongs to Viktor now, but Gayle held onto the penthouse like a spider keeps the center of its web. Non-negotiable, apparently. Her one condition in the sale.
Not a single photograph on any surface. No family portraits. No childhood snapshots. Nothing personal. Just money on the walls where memories should be. Strange, for a woman who claims her daughter is the most precious thing in the world.
I hadn't noticed it before. But then, the last time I was here, I'd been knocked on the head. Details got lost.
She opens the door herself. Silk robe.
"Nikolai," she purrs, walking away before I've even stepped in. "What brings you here?"
"I came to fix your mess," I say, shutting the door behind me.
She walks to the kitchen, pours a green smoothie that looks like pond water, and sips it with the satisfaction of someone who hasn't done a hard day's work in her life.
"What mess?"
"The property. You buried half the zoning under fake approvals and forgot to mention the land is in active litigation."
"Oh, that." Like I just pointed out a typo in her novel.
I stay still. "Drop the price."
She laughs. Full-on, head-back laughs. Like I told her the joke of the year.
"Or throw in one of the other parcels," I say, jaw tight. "You've got plenty."
She leans against the counter. "Elle's worth three buildings, at least. Honestly, you got a bargain. It's generosity for family that keeps me from asking for more."
The way she says it. Elle's worth. Like she's something to be tallied on a spreadsheet. It makes my skin burn.
"She's not a commodity."
"She's a negotiation," Gayle says, smirk firmly in place. "She always has been."
The way she says it. Like Elle is a line item she's still collecting interest on.
I let the silence stretch. Then I cross the room. Slow. Until I'm close enough that she has to tilt her head back to hold my eyes. I don't touch her. I don't need to.
"Let me be clear about something," I say quietly.
"You sold her. That transaction is complete.
Whatever you think you still hold over her — her loyalty, her guilt, her need for a mother who actually showed up — that's done.
She's mine now. Which means your access to her is exactly what I decide it is. "
Gayle's smile doesn't waver. But I see the vein on the side of her neck throbbing. I can smell her fear.
"And if I were you," I continue, "I would be very careful about what you do with the time you have left in that penthouse. Because the building belongs to my uncle now. And goodwill runs out."
I turn and walk to the door.
"Was that a threat, Nikolai?"
I don't look back.
"It was a courtesy. I don't usually give those. You’re still breathing which is more than you deserve. I warned you once and you still touched my wife. Next time, there will be a bullet in your brain before you can blink.”
By the time I get back in the car, I already know what I'm going to do.
I've got money. More than Uncle Viktor knows, stashed in private accounts. It's not that I hid it from him or kept it secret. I just never had the need for the kind of pay he gives me. Years of bonuses I never touched, business deals he wanted no part of, cash I couldn't refuse and didn't spend.
It's clean. It's mine.
And I'm going to use it to fix this.
I'll tell Viktor she folded. That she dropped the price after I threatened to go public. He won't dig if I bring him numbers and results.
It's a risk. A massive, stupid risk for a woman I've known less than a month. Elle will never know. She'll never need to.
Because this is the thing no one understands about me: I'm loyal.
Fiercely.
Violently.
Without limits.
Once I decide someone's mine, I don't give them up. Not even when I should.
As I pull back onto the road, heading home, heading toward Elle, I realize it's not even a choice anymore. It's just the only path forward that doesn't end with me burning the world to ashes to keep her safe.