Chapter 75
Hours pass and another round in which started with her mouth on my cock and ended with her sitting on me again, until redressing and walking back to the mansion. The moment we break from the trees, I take her hand in mine. Now that I’m allowed to touch her, I never want to stop.
To think, mere hours ago, I was still denying what we could be. If Serafina didn’t want to stay to see Lev wake, we’d likely be on a plane by now and I’d be flying away from my future rather than tucking it beneath my arm.
“What were you doing out here, anyway?”
“Hiding. Figured you’d take off soon after and I didn’t want to be around for that.”
For some reason, that makes me smile. Even as she denied herself, she knew it’d hurt.
When we approach the house, Anastasia bursts out the front door, an explosion of energy and commotion. “Finally, you two!” Her eyes flick to our joined hands, and she smiles before shaking her head. “Do you not answer your phone?”
Vanessa reaches into her pocket and slips her cell out. “Got preoccupied. Lev okay?”
“Ivan escaped! Turns out, he had more men waiting outside and they attacked those we left behind.” Her countenance slips a bit, frown folding downwards. “More deaths…and he’s gone. Fuck . I used the tracking software on Lev’s phone, but the trail goes cold at the airport. People are headed there now, but so far, there’s no trace of him boarding a plane.”
Vanessa shouts her reply in Russian, but it’s much too quick to catch, and Anastasia responds the same way.
“For fuck’s sake, why can’t we win?” Vanessa releases my hand to rub her face. The woman from earlier is gone, the Pakhan returned, determined and focused to end another war. “Where would he be going?”
“Vitale?” I offer, already pulling out my own cell. “Without asking directly and raising suspicion, I can get Nero on it. Others in the Cosa Nostra might know too. If he looks at the Italy border, we’ll find out.”
“That’s helpful, thanks.” She blows out a breath. “It’s not a guarantee, but it’s something.” She looks to her Elite again. “Tell Dimitri. He should be landing soon.”
“Already done.” She turns for the side of the house. “I’m going to head to the warehouse and help with the clean-up.” With a parting smile toward both Vanessa and me, she walks a few steps before pausing. “Also, finally you two figured it out. You’re welcome by the way. Now we can all get some rest around here.”
Once she’s gone, I swing Vanessa in front of me, cupping her face to attempt to smooth the worry lines etching her face. I love seeing her focused, but I’m already missing the woman from the forest.
“Whatever you need, whatever resources, the Cosa Nostra is at your disposal.”
We haven’t talked about the future yet, and I see the exact second the realization crashes on her. When the lines deepen.
“We’re both heads of two different organizations.”
My hand strokes down her cheek. “Now we’ll be allies. Happens all the time. You’re still Pakhan, and I’m still a capo.”
“We live in two different countries.”
I tuck stray strands of hair behind her ear. “Not for much longer.”
“Zeno.”
“Vanessa,” I mock. “We’ll figure it out in time. Not everything needs a manual.”
“You can’t uproot your life. And I’m needed here.”
In truth, I haven’t thought past today because I couldn’t be certain there would be a future. But Vanessa is attached to her property, and while I will be needed at the villa occasionally, I’m not attached to it. Since Madre moved out, the entire place felt emptier, less like home. The walls are stained with bloody heartbreak, so leaving it to spend most of my time here is an easy choice.
“So our planes will have a bit more mileage added to them.” I shrug. “You’re forgetting one very important detail.”
A low sigh relaxes some of her stress lines. “What’s that?”
“That I don’t give a fuck about anything but you now.”
Then my mouth descends onto hers and I ensure she stops worrying for now.
Vanessa’s on her third call regarding Ivan when I phone Nero and update him on everything that happened, including requesting lookouts at the border and another meeting with Vitale.
“You don’t do simple,” he says. “Well, despite everything, I’m glad you two figured it out. So the union remains, I assume?”
Coincidentally, at some point when I was in the forest, my lawyers emailed me the divorce agreement for her and I to sign.
“We’ll see,” is all I tell him before hanging up and going to find Serafina who’s still lingering by Lev’s bedside.
“Nothing?” I ask when entering.
She lifts her head from the edge of his bed, her cheek red. “He woke earlier for about a minute, but the drugs knocked him right back out.” She studies me up and down before noting, “You have dirt on your face. How’d it go?”
“Good.” Better than good.
“That’s all I get?” She leans back into the chair, crossing her arms with a pout.
“It’s all you need to know.”
“Does this mean you won’t bitch at me if I talk to her?”
I didn’t consider all this either. For so long, I worried that Serafina would grow attached to the idea of Vanessa, and would be set up to be hurt. But that isn’t Vanessa, and if they want to have a relationship, then we’ll all be one fucked-up family wreath.
“No.”
“Which makes her my half-sister…and my future sister-in-law.”
Current, technically. A fact she doesn’t know and with the contract in my email, might never need to.
“Future’s unknown,” is all I tell her.
A coughing sound comes from the bed and Serafina moves quickly, reaching Lev’s side almost instantly. She rests her hand on his, offering low words of encouragement about him being okay and safe.
Taking that as my cue, I leave the room and travel undisturbed through the Volkov mansion until reaching Vanessa’s office, where I left her earlier. I find her seated behind the desk, her head in her hands, and a book in front of her. I wander closer to see it’s a book of someone’s writings, and while it could quite possibly be hers, I know it’s her father’s.
“His journal?” I brush a hand down her back, showing her with a gentle touch, she’s not alone.
From the corner, a Doberman puppy runs up to my feet, sniffing my shoes. I met Veles briefly earlier and he seemed cautious around me, but maybe interaction number two will get him to start warming up to me. Besides, he needs to get used to me since I don’t plan on going anywhere. I wonder how Venus will feel about having a little brother to play with. I go to pick him up but with flattened ears, he backs away and returns to his fluffy dog bed in the corner of the room.
“Yeah.” She glances up from the pages. “Rereading some of the passages, hoping there’s a clue to a favourite place he and Ivan might have had or something. An idea of where he fucked off to but there’s nothing.” She grimaces and pauses. “I kinda want to burn it.”
I’d be lying if I didn’t immediately get excited by the prospect. To no longer have the words that depicted my mother’s abuse, my sister’s deal, and my father’s death immortalized forever, but also to remove the physical sign of a man long not existing—well before his death—and to save Vanessa the hope of reading the pages and finding something new within them.
If this journal is one of a few things remaining from his days for her to connect to, then she’ll regret it. Which is why I lay my hand over hers and slide the journal out from under it, opening a desk drawer, and slipping it inside.
In that drawer, though, I see something that makes me pause. A little black box. I pretend not to and shut it.
“Don’t burn it. You’d regret it.” She snorts, but I reach a finger beneath her chin and re-angle her face to mine. “You think so now, but in time, there will be a day you’ll wish you didn’t destroy it. Besides, instead of burning things, I’d prefer we find a printer.”
Skin furrows between her brows. “What?”
I release her chin to retrieve my phone, bringing up the email from my lawyers. It takes her a moment to read it, and before she comes to any wrong conclusions about the timing, I explain, “After leaving the club, I called my lawyers to begin working on this. They just got me it. I want us to get divorced.”
Her mouth parts, the blue of her eyes icing over. She stiffens and I can actually see the walls rebuilding around her. “Today—” As fast as she starts, she stops, pressing her lips together.
I open the drawer again, retrieving the ring box and rest it in front of her.
“Our current union is based on revenge and betrayal. That’s not what I want with you. From here on out, we’re going to have a relationship you deserve. One where I can work to prove I’m the man for you, that you can trust me with every single part of you. I want us to sign the divorce agreement…so I can marry you for real one day, Miss Volkov. A day of your choosing, when you accept me because you want to. A day when my ring on your finger is a promise and not a threat.”
For a long moment, she doesn’t move. She stares at the ring box and my phone.
When she finally tilts her head toward me, a delicate strip of water lines her eyes. She’s trying so hard not to cry but I want her to. Not to see her in that kind of pain but to witness yet another instance of her realizing that from here on out, I’ll do anything for her.
She stands and pulls my face down, kissing me long and deep—deep enough I very nearly lay her back on her desk and show her exactly how I feel. She ends the kiss much too soon, but her hold remains, as I pray it always does.
“Fuck, I love you, Zeno.”
“I love you too, mia regina .”
She turns, taking me with her, and walks me back into her chair. “Sit. I want to show you how much.”
My cock jumps with her offer, but there’s one thing I want more.
Her.
Hands on her hips, I spin us back around, placing her onto her chair before dropping to my knees and parting her thighs. And then I peer up at her and repeat the words that damned me from the start.
“How can I serve you?”