Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Drago
My phone rings on the table. I bite down on my paintbrush and lean over to grab it.
Unknown number. Lev.
Carefully, I place the brush, still slick with red paint, onto the table before answering. I hate being distracted when I’m in my art space.
It’s a hobby I took up after Lily bought the gallery; she inspired me in a way. I find it calming. A way to tune out the mess around me and just focus on the beauty on the canvas.
“Old man. All good?”
“Will be once I get the fuck out of this place.”
I chuckle. It’s been over a year since I last saw him. It will be nice to be reunited. The old guy means more to me than I’d ever admit out loud. The father I needed in this life. “The plan’s in motion. Won’t be long. Just lay low, be at the location on time. Not before.”
Declan agreed to let Lev stay at my mansion on Decadence property. Mine sits tucked away in the far corner, hidden from the rest. Quiet. Secluded. Surrounded by forest and the lake that cuts through the land.
It’s peaceful. Not that I need scenery to inspire my art. Not when my mind is occupied by something else. Someone else.
“I think these are Tatiana’s men hunting me. I recognized one of the fuckers,” Lev says quietly.
I grunt. When Ivan Volkov died at the hands of his own son, it left a void in Russia. One that needed filling. The Volkovs wanted nothing to do with their father’s rotten empire. That made it inevitable.
Tatiana took it. She takes everything she wants.
The smaller families either bent the knee or were wiped out. Her father, Vanos the Butcher, died in prison. And now Russia feels her grip tightening.
“Probably. You were in her territory. We aren’t welcome any longer.”
I already have a plan for that. Once the Preacher is dealt with. If Enzo gives the word.
“I’ll see you soon, okay?”
Lev sighs. “Lily never replied to my text.”
My fist tightens, but relief cuts through it. No response is better when he’s being fucking hunted. Lily needs to remain a ghost to anyone in the mafia world.
“Do not contact her again until you’re here, Lev. I’m keeping her safe. And don’t even say her name on a line, secure or not.” I snap.
I don’t mean to, but I can’t help it when it comes to her.
“I won’t. Just hurry up before I get my tongue ripped out by a demonic woman on a power trip.”
I snort. Accurate.
“We’re on it. Trust me. I’ll speak to you later.”
The call ends. I reopen the tab to Lily’s social media for the art gallery.
The first thing I notice is the picture of her with Claude.
It makes my chest tight. Seeing her smile, but the pain behind her eyes.
She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever set eyes on.
She sparkles brighter than that diamond necklace around her neck.
Seeing another man have his hands on her? That floods me with rage, making my knuckles turn white as I clench them. Knowing that I could never be the man standing beside her.
A notification pops up telling me she’s on a call. And my gut twists. This doesn’t just feel like an invasion of privacy. It fucking is. And she deserves better than this. But I have to keep her safe. And this is how I know how to. If I can’t be beside her, I have to use other means.
Stick to the rules I gave myself. Her protection can only be from a distance. I can’t allow myself to fall any deeper.
I pull up the feed tied to Lily’s phone and listen in. Resting my elbows on my knees, eyes drifting to the window as the wind stirs the leaves outside.
Then my blood pressure spikes as I hear Declan’s voice.
“I’m probably being paranoid,” she says, her voice tight.
Paranoid about what?
“It’s okay, Lily. I’ll send one of my guys over. You’re safe, don’t worry.”
I turn the volume up.
“I want cameras outside that cover all areas and one in my hallway. So, four total? I can give you some money for them.”
What the fuck scared her?
“I don’t want your money, Lily. You are family. I’ll send someone over, okay?”
I stand abruptly, breath burning, nearly knocking over the paint on the table. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and pace the room as adrenaline hums through me.
I message Declan.
Me: Dec, I need to speak to you.
The reply comes instantly.
Declan: What the fuck has come up?
The only way forward is the truth. Before Lev arrives. Before this blows wider.
Fuck it. Rip the bandage off.
Me: Are you home? I’ll come and explain.
Declan: Meet me in Inferno’s bar. Fifteen minutes. I’ve got the extraction plan ready to run over with you. We leave tomorrow afternoon.
This changes everything. I can’t keep splitting myself in half, especially not when Lev is arriving here.
I stare at the message, jaw tight. I’ll have the twins watch out for Lily if I’m heading back into Russia. And let’s just hope the ghosts of my past aren’t waiting for me in the snow.
Declan is already sitting in a booth with two whiskeys by the time I arrive.
Since Inferno closed its doors a few weeks back, we’ve just used it for its office space and bar. What once was a sex club, one people would kill to enter, is now just another building with dim lighting and too many ghosts in the corners.
I slide into the booth opposite him.
“You good, Drago?” he asks.
I pick up my whiskey and knock it back.
“Yeah,” I hiss as it burns down my throat.
Declan doesn’t push. He just watches me like he always does. Like he knows silence can be more dangerous than a gun.
“Before we talk about the extraction plan,” I tell him, voice low, “I need to tell you some things.”
His eyebrow lifts. He takes a slow sip like I’m about to confess to murder. “Go for it. I’m all ears.”
I blow out a breath.
Where the fuck do I even begin?
“First,” I say. “I need to be the one who installs the security cameras at Lily’s.”
Declan nods slowly, tapping his ring against the table once. Twice.
“Why is that?” he asks, calm as ever. “Because she’s Lev’s daughter? And how the fuck do you know about it already?”
I could lie.
I could skate around the truth.
But there’s no point. Not with him. Not with a man who’s built an empire on reading people the way other men read books.
And I need to ensure I’m the one who walks into her house.
A boundary I shouldn’t be crossing.
One that I can’t stop myself from crossing.
“Yes,” I admit. “I do have a duty to watch out for Lily because of Lev. I have been doing it for years now.”
Declan’s gaze sharpens.
“In recent years, it’s morphed,” I continue, my jaw tightening, “from the occasional check-in… to full surveillance.”
He chews on his lip, absorbing it. “Does she know that you’re watching her?” he asks.
I shake my head once. “No. And it needs to stay that way.”
Declan’s eyes narrow slightly.
“She can’t even know I work with you,” I add. “I’m not sure what she remembers from Russia. Or if she’d even know my name.”
His frown deepens. “Would it not be easier to just tell her you’re her bodyguard? Especially now?”
Fuck.
“No,” I say instantly.
No, because I’m not just a bodyguard.
No, because if I step fully into her life, I won’t be able to stop.
No, because I’m already too far in.
“So what?” Declan asks, voice sharp now. “You just secretly watch out for her? For what reason?”
I run my hand over my jaw, feeling the tension in my face like stone. “A few years back,” I say, “I saved her from someone.”
The words come out calm, but my chest tightens all the same. “Something fucking awful happened to her,” I continue, my voice turning colder. “And I vowed never to let anyone get close enough to hurt her like that again.”
Declan stays still, but I see it; something dark flashes behind his eyes.
“I swore to myself I’d keep her safe,” I finish. “And this is what I’m doing.”
I lean forward slightly, voice dropping. “That’s why I need to be the one who puts in the cameras. So I can use the feeds too.”
Declan exhales hard. “Fuckin’ hell, Drago.”
“I know,” I bite out. “I know it sounds all kinds of fucked up.”
I grip the edge of the table. “I’m aware I’m skating a thin fucking line here,” I admit. “With Lev being her father. With not telling him what happened to her. It’s a mess.”
Declan’s stare doesn’t waver.
“But it’s my responsibility,” I say, and my voice turns deadly calm. “And so is Lilys safety.”
Declan knocks back the rest of his drink and immediately pours us both another, like alcohol might make this easier to digest.
Then he says, quiet but pointed, “You know Lily is Hallie’s best friend?”
“Are you serious?” I mutter. “After what I just told you, you think I don’t know?”
Declan barks out a laugh. “Yeah. Okay,” he says, shaking his head. “I mean… You want me to withhold this information from Conan?”
I grin. I find it amusing how easily accepting he is. How fucked up this life is.
“Because that loud mouth will tell his wife,” Declan continues, “who, will tell Lily.”
“I’d appreciate you not letting this information leave this room,” I say.
Declan watches me for a long moment. Then he nods once. “Fine,” he says. “Do what you need to do.”
Then his tone shifts, and he leans in closer.
“But maybe consider just telling Lily and Lev the truth. Especially if we’re extracting him and he’s moving to Decadence. I could do without a family feud with everything else we’ve got going on.”
“If I need to,” I say slowly, “I will.”
And it would have to be life or fucking death for me to come clean about this. Because I’m too far in now for the truth not to destroy something.
I’ve only told Declan this much because I need those feeds installed. Because I need eyes on her, even when I’m not there.
Apparently, to keep Lily safe…
I’ll cross whatever lines I need to. Except the one where I reveal myself to her. Where I allow her to know me. Where I let her look at me and understand the truth.
Because the moment she knows I exist…
I won’t survive it.