Chapter 6 – VALENTINA
Six
VALENTINA
“Why have you been avoiding me?”
The words slip out before I can stop them. Maybe to steer us away from the subject of Cole, or because I can’t decide which of the two pisses me off more. Five days, and not a single call. Not even a damn check-in. It stings more than I want to admit.
“And don’t lie to me, Maksim. I’m not that little girl who used to hang on your every word without question.”
“I remember that going a little differently,” he says with a laugh. “More like you fought me at every turn. Is that why you dragged me up here?”
My annoyance wavers. I grit my teeth to hide the smile threatening to break through. “Maxy,” I snap, the old nickname slipping out. “Answer the damn question.”
“I haven’t.”
“Lie.”
I step closer, searching his eyes for a crack, but he gives nothing.
“Valentina,” he huffs, “I haven’t been avoiding you for the reasons you think.”
“So I was right.”
“Val…”
“Tell me then. What reasons would those be?”
He said he’s been busy. Just that. But somehow, that hurts worse.
Has so much time passed that I don’t matter anymore? That even after everything, even after almost dying, he can’t be bothered?
The back of my throat ignites as the realization creeps in. He hasn’t left my mind since the hospital, while to him, I’m still just that pesky little girl he left behind, begging for scraps of his attention.
Pathetic.
“Oh, just important work shit, right?” My tone wavers, softer and shakier than I mean it to. I hate myself for letting him hear it.
“Vali—”
“Valentina.”
The only people who still call me Vali are my parents and those close enough to feel like family. From Maksim, it feels wrong. Too juvenile.
His eyes narrow. “Valentina, if you think for one second that anything matters more to me than knowing you’re okay…then you don’t know me at all.”
“I don’t. And let’s be honest—you don’t know me either.”
His lips twitch, a shadow of a smile that never quite makes it. “That’s fair.”
“And you still haven’t answered my question. What kept you away?”
I don’t even know what I want him to say. The words carry the weight of a decade, not just the week. Judging by the tension in his jaw, I know he feels it too.
With a quiet sigh, he drops onto the bed, catching my crutches in one hand while offering the other to help me down beside him. The brush of his fingers sends sparks through me, and when our thighs touch, nervous energy swarms under my skin.
“Work, thousands of miles, and the years between us. There really isn’t much more to it.”
“You stopped calling.”
“You were just a kid, Valentina. I had a lot going on. After a while, I figured you’d just—”
“Move on?”
He nods, eyes sliding away from mine.
It shouldn’t sting to realize the connection I thought we had was one-sided.
He’s right. Maksim was out there rediscovering himself, rebuilding his legacy.
What could he have had in common with a girl whose biggest thrill back then was making lime-green slime?
But the prickling in my belly is real, no matter how sound the logic.
But things can change. I want them to. Some of my earliest memories are with Maksim.
I reach for his hand, turning it over, tracing the ink etched across his knuckles, where faint scars cut through the black.
“I get it,” I say, forcing a smile as I meet those too-pretty blue eyes. “But you’re here now, Maxy. And you don’t get to flake out on me. We’re tight-knit around here—we look out for each other.”
“So I’ve heard.”
His laugh hits like a jolt of electricity, sparking where our skin touches and rolling through me, until I have to press my thighs together.
I study him, drinking him in like he might vanish if I blink. Maksim is beautiful. A razor jaw, storm-blue eyes, and of course, lashes too thick for a man.
Why does that always happen?
“Wait—why do you get to call me Maxy, but I can’t say Vali?”
I shrug. “I don’t make the rules.”
“Except you just did.”
“Fine. It’s because you owe me.”
I push up to stand, biting back the soreness thrumming through every muscle. Before I can reach for my crutches, Maksim’s already there, one hand at the small of my back, the other grabbing them first.
“Starting off strong. Good boy.”
His brow lifts, and for a second, I swear I feel his hand tense against my spine. Maybe I imagine it. Hard to tell when I’m too distracted by the way his touch burns through the thin fabric, each fingertip leaving a trail that feels a little too…deliberate.
I look up and catch him watching me. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I swear there’s fire in his gaze, a flicker of something I’ve never seen before. My heart rate picks up, and suddenly, everything starts to make sense.
Maksim has crept into my thoughts more times than I’d ever admit since the moment he showed up at my bedside.
I keep telling myself it’s because I missed him.
But I know better. It’s attraction, plain and superficial, of course.
Because the boy I once knew grew into a man I’ve only seen in passing flashes…
a man too dangerously grown to fit in the memories I’ve kept of him.
Who is he now? And why does he look more haunted than the day he left us?
The question lingers, tightening something in my chest. I’m suddenly humming with the need to peel back every one of his layers.
“Coming?”
“I’m afraid to ask what my debt entails.”
“Loyal servitude,” I say, throwing a glance over my shoulder, letting just enough heat into my voice to toe the line between teasing and something else. If he picks up on it, he doesn’t show it.
Hermes pads behind me, nudging my leg as Maksim closes in.
“You’ve got my full attention,” he says, voice flat. “And his.”
I smile, reaching down to scratch behind my dog’s ear. “He’s a good boy. Been attached to me since the day we met. He’ll get used to you.”
Maksim doesn’t say anything, and a small, stupid part of me deflates. Maybe it’s because he’s not staying long enough for anyone to get used to him.
I turn away, already missing a man who hasn’t even left yet.
Setting my crutch against the wall, I shuffle through my closet, trying to dispel thoughts of Maksim before they dig any deeper.
“My mom wants to stick around and help out,” I say, changing the subject. “I love her to death, I do, but she’s treating me like I’ve got one foot in the grave. Arguing with her is the last thing I need. And she’s already got her hands full with Madden and AJ. I don’t want to be a burden.”
I feel the heat of his presence at my back, and my belly reacts accordingly.
“Val, you’d never be a burden to Eva. You know that.” His voice is close—too close. “What are you looking for? Let me help.”
“Something—and that’s precisely it!”
When I turn, he’s closer than I expected, and I have to tilt my head to meet his eyes. My tongue darts over my lips without thinking, and his gaze follows the movement.
“If you’re not busy,” I say softly, “maybe you can help me get used to this new life. Reach things on the top shelf now that I can’t climb chairs and all that.”
He exhales, eyes steady on mine. “I think I can do that. I feel…partially responsible.”
With an eye roll, I turn back to the wooden crate and keep digging. “You’re not doing this out of guilt, Maxy. And if it were your fault, you’d have been laid out on that street right next to your driver.” I chuckle. “Remi and I are close. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for me and vice versa.”
“I believe it. She pulled a knife on me when she thought I’d hurt you.”
I laugh under my breath. Yeah, that’s Remi.
She and I have gotten into our fair share of shit. Things we’d never confess out loud to anyone outside the family. No one would understand.
Would he?
I already know the answer. I can see the ghosts behind his eyes. The ground he’s gained, the power he’s built, all paid for in blood and sacrifice. Every connection, every victory, came with a price. I know how this all works.
“Found it.”
I pull the stuffed hummingbird from the bottom of the crate. The scent of old cedar clings to the frayed fabric, and the once-bright colors are now dulled with time. But it’s just as beautiful as I remember.
“It’s Maxy,” I say, twisting back to face him.
His smile stretches as he reaches for the most cherished relic of my childhood.
He won it for me at the state fair when I was two.
It was my first memory of him. And I clung to that little hummingbird for years…
and to him even longer. Before Remi, there was only Maksim.
I was his little shadow, no matter how much it annoyed him.
I can’t remember the exact moment the bird became my constant, only that it never left my side. Especially after he did.
“I can’t believe you still have this,” he murmurs.
“Of course. It was my favorite.” I take a step closer. “My Maxy,” I echo, my voice dipping into that same smoky tone from earlier.
His eyes lift from the bird to me, and he chuckles. But the faint twitch in his jaw tells me there’s something he wants to say, and maybe something he won’t.
“Kolibri.”
His thumb grazes my cheek, my pulse thrumming at the sound of that old nickname, one I hadn’t heard in years until that day at the hospital.
Using his forearm for balance, I rise onto my toes and press a kiss to his jaw, letting my lips linger just long enough, then I whisper,
“Welcome home, Maksim.”