Chapter 30 Liev
LIEV
I can’t think straight.
The second she stepped into the hallway in that green dress, every coherent thought in my head vanished.
My brain simply… melted.
Before, I was consumed with Alex’s voice from earlier this afternoon.
“Mikhail’s going to ask a favor. Make it happen.”
But right now?
I couldn’t tell you the color of the sky if someone held a gun to my head.
All I see is her.
The candle on the table between us flickers, throwing light across her cheeks, flushed from the wine and her laughter.
She’s in the middle of a story about Finn, briefly assigned to a team tasked with escorting a mining executive’s family out of Central America along with their menagerie of pets.
And how Finn was forced to climb a tree to rescue the daughter’s Persian cat who’d made a break for it.
Her eyes glitter when she snickers. “Finn hates cats. Apparently his sister had one, and it peed on his clothes all the time. Ever since, he’s held a grudge.”
She laughs, bright and unguarded, and something hooks deep in my chest and pulls. I want to capture the feeling and hold on to it forever.
I’m happy. Truly. Deeply. Happy.
The night has been unhurried and easy. We haven’t stopped talking since we got here, and it feels so… normal. I don’t want it to end.
“Sera!”
Her spoon freezes halfway to her mouth, and her shoulders go rigid. I look up.
Ray ‘The Hammer’—former world heavyweight boxing champion—is standing ten feet away, staring at us. Flanking him are two hulking men in red velour athleisure. Both are wearing dark sunglasses despite the fact that we are in a dimly lit restaurant.
I’d laugh at the image they make—two goons straight out of a bad Vegas movie—except Sera’s face has gone blank. The easy warmth I’ve been enjoying is gone.
My eyes narrow on Ray as he strides over with a wide smile, seemingly oblivious to his daughter’s cool reception.
His resemblance to Brady is there, though his face bears the hallmarks of a career spent in the ring.
He’s wearing jeans and a purple-patterned shirt, open almost to his belly button.
The diamonds on his watch catch the candlelight.
The man is practically designed to draw attention.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” He sounds delighted, but Sera’s face is a frighteningly blank mask. “I haven’t seen you in so long. I’d hoped to see you last time I was in Atlanta. I called…”
He sounds hurt, but Sera’s jaw tightens further, and she doesn’t speak.
His gaze darts to me before returning to her, refusing to give up. It’s obvious where Sera and Brady get their stubbornness.
“What are you doing in Vegas?” He presses. “You didn’t tell me you were coming to town. We could’ve had dinner.”
His eyes slide back to me, and I see the exact second he recognizes the tattoos above my collar and decorating my hands.
His smile falls, and his face hardens. He extends a hand across the table. “Ray, Sera’s father.”
He puts such an emphasis on the word that Sera snorts, but I’m already rising. The older man’s grip is crushing, and the protective father act would be cute, except I know how much this man has hurt her.
I squeeze back just as hard, holding his gaze, not blinking. After a long beat, he lets go. I don’t. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” I say, before releasing his hand.
To the man’s credit, he stands straighter, never breaking eye contact. “Can’t say the same. Who are you?”
I open my mouth to answer, but Sera interrupts. “Ray, we’re in the middle of something here. I’ll call you another time.”
“When?” His voice is softer now.
“I don’t know… soon.” She pushes her chair back. “Liev, are you ready?”
Ray steps back to give her room. “Come on, Sera. Just give me a minute.”
“Another time.” She doesn’t meet his eyes and steps toward me. I take her hand, and Ray notices, his gaze flicking to where I’ve interlaced our fingers.
Ray’s eyes travel over her face, dipping to the scars on display. “You look beautiful tonight, sweetheart.”
Sera’s nostrils flare, and her eyes flash, but she snaps her mouth shut on whatever arrow she was going to fling at him. “Thank you,” she says through her teeth.
Regret and sadness are etched on her father’s face. When he opens his mouth to speak again, Sera turns her shoulder and walks away.
The desert night has grown chilly while we were eating.
Shrugging out of my suit jacket, I drape it over her shoulders without a word.
For once she doesn’t protest, just pulls it tighter around her.
We walk in silence for a few minutes, dodging the crowds clogging the strip’s sidewalks despite the cold.
Finally, she exhales a shaky breath. “I didn’t have to be such a bitch.”
“I don’t think you were.”
She frowns but doesn’t object when I steer her to the side of the dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio. Leaving the crowd behind, I stop at a semi-secluded section of the curved edge and turn her to face me.
“I know he’s trying,” she says, looking torn. “He has for the last few years… since my mom died. And he didn’t hesitate to help last summer, even though he got hurt.” Her struggle to rationalize the emotions warring with her thoughts is written all over her face.
“Dr. Swan suggested maybe the reason he’s trying now, instead of when I was younger, is because he couldn’t handle my mom’s infatuation with him. Not that it ever stopped him from climbing into her bed whenever he felt like it.”
The bitterness is back in her voice. She looks up at me. “I don’t know. Brady seems to be giving him a chance… Maybe I should?”
I bend and place a soft kiss on her lips and then lift her by her hips to set her on the tall planter, bringing her to almost eye level with me.
“There is no should. I’m sure your therapist told you that, too.
You don’t owe him anything. If you want to give him a chance, do it because it’s what you want to do, not because anyone else is making you feel guilty about it. ”
She chews her lip, clearly thinking about it. “Do you think I should?”
I think for a moment before answering, knowing how I respond is important.
“I hated him on sight.” She jerks at my words.
“He hurt you. I hate anyone who hurts you.” My lips quirk.
“It’s just the way it is. But I saw his face when he saw me.
When he recognized who… what I am… I saw the concern.
It doesn’t excuse anything he’s done, but it wasn’t the face of a man who didn’t care about his daughter. ”
She blows out a breath, and I tuck her hair behind her ears when it falls forward, hiding her face from me.
“That said… Fuck him for letting you down. If you need me to put my murder-face on to scare him away, I’m happy to.”
I smile when she laughs softly. “I don’t think that will be necessary.” Her shoulders drop slightly. “I think my dad genuinely feels bad for his mistakes. I just don’t know if he’s learned from them. I don’t know that I want to risk that kind of hurt again.”
I step closer, and her knees shift, letting me step between. Cupping her cheek, I stroke it with my thumb. “I think that is entirely justified. Your heart is the most important thing in my world. Mine’s tied to it now, permanently… So, I need you to take care of it.”
Her lips part, but I don’t kiss her. My throat tightens as I bring my other palm to frame the opposite side of her face. The music from the fountains and spray of the water give us a small spot of privacy, which is good because this isn’t a conversation I want overheard.
“Liev?” A small line forms between her brows.
“I know this isn’t the right time—even before your dad interrupted—or the place, but we need to talk about what comes next. When we leave here in a couple of days. When the job is over.”
The tiny wrinkle is joined by another, and I feel her stiffen. She’s bracing herself for something bad, I realize, and all the logical arguments I’ve formed in my head, each carefully calculated to make her say yes, disappear.
“Marry me,” I blurt out.
Her eyes are enormous. “What?”
“Fuck. That didn’t come out right.” Unfamiliar nerves clench in my stomach.
“Liev—”
“We should get married.” I shake my head.
That doesn’t sound right, either.
“I want to marry you.”
Fuck. That’s not much better.
My heart is beating so hard I think she can hear it.
Her brow scrunches further, and she reaches up to catch my wrists. “Breathe, Gangster. You look like you’re about to pass out. And you are way too big for me to carry.”
I look down at her face, and my pulse slows, my breath evening out. Everything calming inside me.
Because that’s what she does to me. She’s become my lodestone. The thing that keeps me steady and gives me something worth fighting for—a future I never hoped to have.
I need her to say yes.
“I was prepared to give you all the reasons you should marry me.” I keep my voice soft as I shift closer until I can feel the heat of her skin against my thighs.
“With my ring on your finger and my last name, the Taggerts can’t touch you.
They wouldn’t dare. And if they still go after Brady, you can use my fortune to defend him.
I had a whole pitch ready… every what-if you should worry about.
If the truth of my father’s death comes out…
If the Taggerts blame you for not being able to pay back their debt… ”
I pause the words tasting sour on my tongue.
“But the truth is…” I rush the rest of the words out. “I don’t want to manipulate you. I just want to marry you.”
I hold her gaze, letting her see how I feel.
“I want you with me. Every day. Every morning when you burn your tongue on your first sip of coffee because you’re impatient, and you’re scarily grumpy until at least half a cup.
I want to hold you every night after every good and shitty day…
Because I don’t want to know another night without you.
I want you flipping me off and scowling at me because I turned down the volume on your sappy Taylor Swift that you blast getting dressed in the morning. ”
My chest feels tight. I exhale.
“I just want you. Forever.”
“Wait.” She shakes her head, trying to process everything I just dumped on her. “Your fortune? Not that Brady needs it, but I thought the whole reason you needed to work at Elite was because you needed the money?”
I make a face, and she lets out a disbelieving breath. “And your mother’s trans-Atlantic cruise… I’m guessing all that expense talk wasn’t true.”
“No.”
“And you wanted the job at Elite because—?”
“It was the only way I could stay close to you.”
Sera waves her hands in the air, and mine drop from her face.
“You lied to me.” She gives me a hard stare.
“Yes.”
“To recap… You didn’t need a job?”
“No.”
“And you only took the job to be near me?” She looks baffled.
“Yes.”
Is that bad?
I can’t read her expression.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“You left your regular life on the off chance you would see me in the office... But we barely knew each other then.”
My stomach knots. When she says it out loud, it sounds crazy.
Like her stalker ex.
A tear slips down her cheek, and I feel sick.
“I never meant to make you feel…” My voice cracks.
“That is—”
“Crazy?”
What the fuck did I do?
She laughs through her tears. “Yeah, but…”
“But?” A spark of hope flares behind my ribs.
“It might also be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Which is probably just more evidence of how fucked I am. Might need to tell Dr. Swan about this one.”
My pulse picks up. “Romantic is good, right?”
“Yeah,” she whispers.
Blood thuds in my ears as I belatedly retrieve the small box from my pocket. Her eyes are huge as I take one of her hands in mine.
“Seraphina, Little Warrior, feral monster that you are, will you marry me?”
She gasps, staring at the ring, and then, on a long exhale, she says, “I’m going to tell people to call me Mrs. Gangster.”
When the emerald and diamond ring is nestled against her knuckle, she meets my eyes. “You’re sure?”
I hate the vulnerability in her eyes. That anyone ever made her feel like she was anything less than wanted, makes me furious.
“Other than walking into what might’ve been a death sentence for you that night…” I hold her gaze, voice low. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
She stares, lips parted. “You thought your bratva might actually kill you?”
I lift one shoulder. “Worth it.”
Her breath catches. “Holy shit.” A visible shiver runs through her, and her pupils blow wide. She drags in a shaky inhale. “Get me back to the hotel. Right fucking now.”
Heat slams through me as her thighs lock tight around my hips. Then her mouth is on mine, hungry and desperate. I haul her closer, arms banding around her until there’s no space left between us. Her heart hammers against my chest, matching my own wild rhythm.
Sera breaks it just long enough to gasp against my lips, then shoves me back a single step so she can slide down from the ledge. Her feet hit the ground, but she doesn’t step away. Instead, she presses her body flush to mine, her fingers curled in my shirt.
“Unless you want the entire Vegas strip to hear me come,” she rasps, “we need to get back to the room. Now.”
I let a slow, wicked smile spread across my face. “We’ve got one more stop to make.”