Chapter 73
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
Drago
The house is too quiet when I step back inside.
Not calm.
Just… hollow.
Like it knows she isn’t here.
Lily is safe, but my body doesn’t understand distance. My body still feels like it should be able to reach her by turning my head.
I slam the door shut behind me and walk straight past the kitchen. Straight up the stairs—not even checking where Lev is—down the hallway to the one place in this house that was built for monsters.
The panic room door is disguised as part of the wall, with matte-black wood paneling and no handle or hinges visible. It looks like a design choice.
I press my palm to the panel, feel the faint vibration of the lock engaging. Then I key in the code.
A battlefield, hidden beneath a home. Everything in here is clean. No clutter. No softness. Guns are arranged like surgical instruments. Ammo stacked by calibre. Medical kit. Cash bundles sealed in plastic. Passports in a metal box.
And the safe.
It’s built into the wall, flush and seamless, with a biometric scanner and a manual key override because I don’t trust tech alone. Not with my life. Not with hers.
I crouch, press my thumb to the scanner.
Green light.
Then I enter the second code, the one I never say out loud, the one carved into my spine like a scar.
Inside, velvet-lined shelves hold the things I don’t touch often.
The things that aren’t weapons. The things that have meaning.
My eyes skate across the ring that Lily was wearing the night of her final ballet show. The one that fell from her finger and landed in my car. A piece of her that I always kept with me.
My fingers hover over it for a second before I pull out the small black box containing the necklace.
Simple at first glance. Elegant. Almost delicate. A thin chain. A lock charm covered in diamonds and a key dangling over it.
If you didn’t know what it was, you’d think it was just a father’s parting gift.
A keepsake.
But Lev doesn’t give gifts like other men. Lev gives contingencies and insurance. This necklace isn’t jewellery. It’s a fucking vault.
A storage device disguised as sentiment, built to hold everything Lev has learned over the years… and everything he’s never said out loud. Everything he kept so no one could ever bury him without consequences.
Secrets about Tatiana.
Her family.
Her empire.
Her weaknesses.
Proof. Names. Places. Deals.
The kind of information you don’t just sell.
You trade it for survival.
It makes me feel sick knowing Lily has been wearing this around her neck. Not knowing it’s a target. Not knowing it’s the reason Tatiana’s eyes followed her like a hungry tiger.
I lock the safe, seal the panic room behind me, and head for the kitchen.
Lev is already there, standing at the counter, hands braced like he’s holding himself together.
He turns the second I step in, and his eyes land on the necklace in my hand. “What the fuck are you doing with that?”
I don’t respond, I just step closer and lay it gently on the counter between us anyway.
Not disrespectful. Not careless. Just… final.
“We need to gut it,” I say.
Lev’s nostrils flare, anger flashing like a match. “No.”
“Lev.” My voice is steel. “Yes.”
His eyes snap to mine. “You made a deal,” he says, the words spitting out. “You promised Tatiana you’d give her that if the Preacher comes to the peace talks.”
“I did,” I confirm.
“Then why the fuck are you holding it like it’s yours to touch?”
Because it was around my girl’s throat. Because she trusted it. Because she didn’t know it was a loaded gun.
But I don’t say that.
Instead, I lean in slightly. “Because I’m not handing Tatiana the keys to the kingdom,” I say quietly. “I’m handing her a message.”
Lev’s jaw ticks. “A message,” he repeats like it’s an insult.
“Yes.” I tap the necklace lightly. “You told me that it’s an encrypted drive. It holds your whole damn life.”
Lev’s eyes darken. “Everything I’ve learned.”
“Everything that could end Tatiana,” I say. “And she knows it.”
Silence stretches, then Lev’s voice turns quieter, more dangerous. “And we can’t let her have that information.”
I don’t blink. “Correct, old man.”
That earns the faintest grin from him. “So what’s your plan, Drago? You replace what’s inside with what?”
“With Enzo’s warning.”
That stops him. Not because Lev suddenly respects Enzo’s theatrics, but because he understands the language of power.
He understands chess.
“Tatiana doesn’t fear guns,” I continue. “She fears humiliation. Losing. Being outplayed. We both know her web of lies runs deeper than we do. I think Enzo knows the parts we don’t.”
Lev’s stare holds mine. Then he exhales through his nose. “Show me what Enzo wants.”
I pull out my phone and slide it across the counter.
Lev reads, and his eyes narrow the further he goes. Then—barely there—his mouth twitches like he hates how clever it is.
Tatiana. Or is Natalia more appropriate?
I think it’s about time we played for Checkmate.
Lev looks up slowly. “That’s not a warning,” he says.
“It’s a funeral,” I reply.
For a moment, he doesn’t speak. Then he gestures to the necklace with two fingers. “Give it here.”
I hesitate.
His eyes flash. “Don’t test me, boy.”
I take a deep breath, like him calling me that, just like he has done since I was fifteen, doesn’t splinter something in my chest.
I slide it toward him.
He opens up the locket, and when he pulls back both sides, I see the tiniest of drives. And then he heads towards the living room. Grabbing his laptop, he unplugs a small device from underneath. The kind of thing he built because Lev doesn’t trust off-the-shelf anything.
He slots the necklace into it like it’s a key into a lock and enters the code.
A small light pulses. And the screen boots. Encrypted files populate instantly. Rows and rows of them.
Tatiana. Bloodline. Accounts. Routes. Contacts. Names I recognize and names I don’t. More information pours in, all in Russian.
Lev’s mouth tightens like he’s staring at his own sins. “Christ,” I mutter. “This is… everything. And more?”
Lev doesn’t look away. “It was always going to be everything,” he says. “That was the point.”
My throat tightens.
Because Lily wore this like it was a piece of her childhood, when in reality, it was a noose made of diamonds.
“And I assume you’ve got a more up to date one, seeing as this is eighteen years old?” I ask.
As valuable as past information is, in recent years, more power plays have been made. There are new players. More intel. I’ve got my own store of them, but Lev has always been deeper on the ground than me. But, clearly there is something more historical that Tatiana needs.
He pulls his wallet from his pocket and gets out another drive. A similar size.
“What do you just keep a collection of these?” I joke.
He doesn’t flinch. “Yes. This one has the more recent findings on it. We can merge them together, then it’s a complete timeline.”
I grin. I fucking knew he’d have something.
Lev’s fingers start moving, fast and precise. Extraction first. Copying every file. Duplicating it to a secure drive.
Then, wiping the necklace clean.
And my pulse drums harder the longer I watch.
Because once this is done…
I am going to hand Tatiana the necklace. And pretend I’ve surrendered.
Lev pauses mid-process, voice quieter. “And you think she’ll believe you didn’t touch it?” He asks.
I have contemplated this. She knows our friendship is no longer there. That I no longer trust her. But she also knows my weakness. That I am in love with Lily. And she knows I won’t do anything to put her in danger.
“She’ll believe it because I’ll look her man in the eye and tell him I honored the deal,” I say. “Because I don’t break my word.”
Lev snorts. “Except you are breaking it.”
“No,” I correct. “I’m keeping the deal.”
I point to the necklace. “She asked for the necklace.”
I point to Lev’s device, and the data already transferring. “She didn’t ask for what was inside.”
Lev’s eyes flick up to mine. Respect flashes there. It might be brief, but it’s real. “…Smart,” he mutters.
I exhale slowly, tension easing just a fraction.
Then Lev’s hands still again, and his voice drops into something raw. “I never thought we’d end up like this,” he admits.
I don’t speak at first. Because I hate it too.
I stare at the necklace like it might grow teeth and bite me. “I tried to stay away, Lev,” I admit. “I tried to be the soldier you trained. The weapon you aimed.”
My chest burns. “But she looked at me like I was human,” I say, voice rougher now. “And I stopped being able to breathe without her.”
Lev’s eyes shine faintly. He looks away as if he refuses to be seen breaking.
“She loves you,” he says quietly. Not as a question but as the burning truth.
“Yes,” I whisper. “She does.”
Then, without looking at me, he says the thing I didn’t expect. “I heard you and her yesterday.”
My blood runs cold.
“I heard her panic,” Lev adds quickly, like he knows exactly what that does to me. “The way she couldn’t breathe. The way she sounded like she was drowning.”
My hands clench. My jaw locks so tight it hurts.
“I held her,” I say.
Lev nods once. “And she calmed down.”
Silence.
Then Lev clears his throat, returns to the task like it’s the only thing holding him upright.
The extraction completes, Lev opens a new file, and inputs the message. Enzo’s words now live inside Lev’s necklace, and have the potential to start a war that could break an entire empire.
Lev removes the device, holds it in his palm for a long moment, then he holds it out to me, dangling from his fingers. “It’s empty,” he says. “Except for Enzo’s message.”
I pick it up slowly. The diamonds catch the light like they’re laughing.
Lev’s gaze meets mine, tired and conflicted. “If she finds out,” Lev says quietly, “she’ll come for you.”
I nod once. “She already is,” I reply.
Lev’s jaw tightens. “And if she can’t get you…”
“She’ll go for Lily,” I finish, voice flat.
Lev’s hands twitch like he wants to smash something.
“She won’t touch her.” I snap.
Lev looks at me for a long beat, then something shifts, and he exhales. “I don’t like you much right now,” he mutters, half joking.
I huff a humourless laugh. “Yeah. I got that message loud and clear.”
Lev’s eyes flicker. “But I trust you,” he adds, the words scraping out like they hurt him. “With her.”
That lands like a knife and a blessing at the same time. I nod once, throat tight. “I’ll die before I fail her,” I promise.
“I didn’t mean that, Drago. I’m sorry for how I reacted and for saying those cruel things to you.
You are like a son to me. And you’re right…
I couldn’t think of another man who is worthy of my daughter.
And I have no fucking right to have a say anyway.
I lost that when I let her leave with her mother.
I should just be grateful that I’m here now. I can’t lose either of you.”
Tears sting in my eyes, and I try to hold them back.
Because that’s the man he raised me to be.
A machine. One that doesn’t stop long enough to have time to actually feel emotions run through him.
And I don’t blame him for teaching me to be this way, because it means I’ve survived what would have killed most. He is the only reason I’m still standing.
“Thank you, Lev. For everything.”
He clasps his hand on my shoulder. “And if Lily wants you to leave this life, to go and start fresh somewhere safe, then you have my blessing. I’ll do everything I can to make your exit happen. You deserve happiness just as much as Lily does. Remember that. You’re a good kid.”
I chuckle. “I’m thirty-eight.”
“Well… You’re still that skinny kid I found.”
I smile. “Truce?” I ask, holding out my hand.
Then, finally, like the universe gives us one mercy, he slides his hand into mine and gives it a firm shake. “You’d better survive this war,” he mutters.
My brow lifts.
He scowls like he hates himself for saying it.
“Because if you die,” Lev adds, “she’ll never love again. And I can’t watch my daughter lose another piece of herself.”
My chest tightens, and I swallow the weight down. “I’m not dying,” I promise. “Not when she’s waiting for me.”
Lev stares at me for a long beat. “I won’t let anyone get to either of you.”
It feels like Lev and I are on the same side again.
Family. It may not be by blood, but it’s everything that fucking matters. And soon, I’ll marry his daughter. And I guess that makes him real family. My father-in-law and my adoptive dad. It’s fucked up. But, it’s ours.