Chapter 14
Nikolai
Rain hammered against the windshield hard enough to blur the world into nothing but streaks of gray and white. I barely noticed it.
My fingers stayed locked around the steering wheel while the engine growled beneath us, tires tearing through soaked pavement as the Deveraux estate finally came into view through the storm.
Massive iron gates. Stone walls. Security cameras tracking every fucking movement. A home that was not mine, it was theirs, Emerald’s. A bitter taste filled my mouth at the thought.
Beside me, Viktor sat unusually quiet, one arm resting against the window while he watched the estate approach through narrowed eyes. That alone told me how serious this was. Viktor never shut the fuck up unless things were bad, and things were very fucking bad .
Every second Emerald remained out there made something inside me feel sicker and sicker.
I could still hear the sound of the van doors slamming shut.
Still see her reaching for me through the rain.
Still feel the useless agony of my body refusing to move while blood soaked through my shirt and pooled beneath me in the road like I was some pathetic bastard too weak to protect the one fucking person who mattered.
The wound burned beneath the bandages wrapped around my chest. Good. I deserved the pain.
“You look like shit,” Viktor finally breaking his silence.
“No one asked you.”
“You’re bleeding through the bandages again.”
“I noticed.”
“You should probably care more about that.”
I glanced at him coldly. “You should probably shut the fuck up.”
A smirk tugged briefly at his mouth before disappearing again. Silence swallowed the car afterward.
The closer we got to the estate, the more tension coiled through my body until it felt like my skin couldn’t contain it anymore.
Roman Deveraux already wanted me dead before this.
Showing up at his fucking front door after kidnapping his sister myself?
This was either going to end in cooperation…
or a bloodbath. Honestly, I wasn’t sure which outcome I preferred anymore.
The gates slowly began to open. Not because we were welcome, because they already had snipers aimed at our fucking heads. I could feel it.
The estate grounds stretched endlessly beyond the entrance, dark stone pathways cutting through massive gardens soaked by rain. Lights glowed through the mansion windows in warm gold tones that felt almost unreal compared to the storm outside.
All I could think about was Emerald curled up somewhere inside that house before I took her. Probably tormenting Roman. Ordering the staff around. Stealing books from the library.
I parked near the front entrance and killed the engine.
The second the car doors opened, weapons clicked around us. Fast and precise. At least twelve guards surrounded the vehicle before Viktor’s door had even fully shut. Handguns. Rifles. Laser sights. Every single one aimed directly at us.
Viktor slowly lifted his hands. “Well,” he muttered dryly. “This feels welcoming.”
I stepped out of the car anyway.
Rain immediately soaked through my black shirt while thunder rolled overhead, low and violent enough to shake the ground beneath us. The guards tightened formation instantly. One wrong move and we’d both end up with bullets in our skulls.
Fine by me.
The mansion doors opened. Roman stepped outside, and fucking hell, the man looked like death wrapped in expensive clothing. Dark slacks. Black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, cane in one hand, murder in his eyes. Real murder.
His gaze landed on me and something dangerous settled over his face so completely the guards around him visibly straightened. Roman descended the stone steps slowly despite the cane, rain soaking through his dark hair while fury radiated off him in waves strong enough to choke on.
“Give me one reason,” Roman said coldly, “not to shoot you in the fucking head right now.”
No greeting. Fair.
I looked him directly in the eye.
“Because I’m here for your help.”
Roman actually looked stunned for half a second. As if his brain physically could not process the words that had just come out of my mouth.
Then he laughed once. “You kidnapped my sister!”
“I know. ”
“You held her hostage !”
“I know.”
“You terrorized my fucking family!”
“I know.”
Roman took another step forward. “And now you’re asking me for help ?”
“Yes.”
Rain lashed between us, and Roman’s expression turned dangerously still.
“You’ve officially lost your goddamn mind.”
“Someone took Emerald.”
Everything stopped. Even the guards looked thrown by that. Roman’s entire expression changed instantly. The sarcasm vanished.
“What?”
The single word came out dangerously quiet. I swallowed the metallic taste filling my mouth.
“She was taken.”
Roman stared at me for several long seconds before his gaze flicked downward toward the blood staining through my shirt. Then back to my face .
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
The storm crackled overhead. Viktor shifted slightly beside me while across the courtyard Rupert appeared silently near Roman’s side like a fucking ghost stepping out of the darkness itself.
The second Viktor noticed him, both men went rigid. Watching each other. Calculating each other’s moves. Two predator’s seconds away from violence.
Roman noticed too.
“Stand down,” he ordered without taking his eyes off me.
None of the guards moved. Roman’s voice turned colder. “Now!”
The guards lowered their weapons just enough to avoid immediate bloodshed.
Roman stared at me another second before jerking his head toward the house.
“Inside.”
The warmth inside the estate hit me immediately.
Rainwater dripped from my clothes onto polished marble floors while Viktor stayed close behind me.
Staff scattered the second they saw us entering, tension spreading through the estate like wildfire.
I didn’t blame them. Last time Voss men entered this house, people died.
Roman led us through the massive foyer toward one of the sitting rooms near the west side of the estate. Voices echoed from inside before we even entered.
“I said I’m fine!”
“You were stabbed multiple times two months ago.”
“And?”
“And you can barely rotate your shoulder correctly.”
“I can still kill someone with it.”
“That is not the point.”
I froze the second we stepped through the doorway.
Mira stood near the center of the room wearing black athletic clothes while a woman beside her looked somewhere between exhausted and terrified.
Mira’s dark hair was pulled back loosely and several scars still marked visible sections of her skin from the fire and everything that followed.
But it was her eyes that hit me hardest. Alive. For months I genuinely thought she’d die. For years before that she’d looked trapped inside herself. Now? Now she looked free.
Her gaze snapped toward us. The room went silent. Roman stayed near the doorway watching carefully while Mira stared at me like she was seeing a ghost .
I’d spent years beside her. Protected her. Worked with her. Bled with her. Almost married her, and none of it had ever truly been ours. Not really. Just another cage Lucien built around us both.
Mira slowly walked forward. Every instinct inside me screamed to look away. Guilt clawed through my ribs the second I looked at her scars. I remembered the fire. The bullets. The blood. Everything Lucien turned us into.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Mira wrapped her arms around me first. The contact shocked me hard enough that my body actually locked up.
“You’re here,” she whispered.
Something painful twisted beneath my ribs. Slowly, carefully, I forced myself to hug her back. Despite everything…she mattered to me. Maybe not the way Lucien intended, but she mattered.
Mira eventually pulled away enough to look up at me, her expression softer now.
“We’re free,” she said quietly. “And I’m sorry for what we had to pay for that freedom.”
I understood exactly what she meant. The people we lost, the damage, the destruction, even destroyed ourselves. Lucien destroyed every life he touched long before he died.
I shook my head slightly. “You don’t owe me an apology. ”
“Nikolai—”
“I mean it.” My voice came out rougher than intended. “I don’t blame you, for any of it.”
Mira watched me carefully. I exhaled slowly before forcing the words out.
“What we had…” I paused. “It was never real the way he wanted it to be.”
Pain flickered briefly across her expression. Not because she disagreed, because she understood.
“I cared about you,” I admitted. “I always will, but I think part of me kept waiting for us to become something we were never going to be.”
Mira stayed silent.
“I wanted you happy,” I continued quietly. “And you were never going to find that with me.”
Roman’s expression shifted slightly at that. As if even hearing me speak about her still put him on edge.
Fair enough.
Mira’s hand squeezed my arm once. “You deserved better too.”
A bitter laugh almost left me.
No. I really fucking didn’t .
Before I could answer, the woman beside Mira cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uh… should I come back later?”
Mira glanced toward her. “Sorry, Elena.”
Elena looked between Roman and me like she was trying to decide if she was about to witness a homicide. Smart woman. Roman finally stepped further into the room. “Mira still needs physical therapy because your psychotic father decided to storm this estate and shoot everyone in sight.”
The words landed like a blade sliding directly between my ribs. He was right, Lucien had done that. I had stood beside him for years while he destroyed people without remorse.
I looked away briefly out of shame. “I know.”
Roman’s face hardened. “Do you?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to show up here pretending guilt fixes anything.”
“I’m not pretending anything.”
The room darkened instantly again. Viktor shifted behind me while Rupert subtly moved closer toward Roman.