Chapter Twenty-Five
Valentina
The numbers on the screen don’t make sense. The familiar tension returns between my brows, and I rub out the pain with my knuckles. Something just doesn't seem right with the expenditures report. It’s fucking with my head.
Honestly, after the night I spent wrapped in Viktor's arms, work is the absolute last thing I want to think about. He is finally mine. There are no more deadlines, no more self-imposed vows holding him back, and the crushing guilt of being a monster or a trigger to his past is entirely gone. If I had it my way, I’d be doing absolutely nothing but fucking him all day.
But work can't wait, and today, both of us are elbows deep in it.
Except today is slightly different. Viktor brought his laptop to my floor, working at the desk right outside my glass doors. He’s running his agency from there today, because he just couldn’t handle space after what we experienced yesterday. He’s guarding me, just like old times.
Butterflies explode in my stomach every time I look at him.
I force myself to turn back to my monitor, stuffing the fantasies of sucking his dick underneath the desk in a box for later.
In the end, I decide to generate the raw financial report myself, manually digging into the numbers. I frown. Maybe Sarah messed it up? She’s the one responsible for generating the summaries.
But as the real data finally populates, I realize the truth.
No. Sarah did not mess it up. She almost perfected it to look absolutely flawless on the surface, while millions of dollars were being funneled out of my secondary accounts right under my nose. For weeks, it’s been happening without me noticing a single red flag. Sarah?
Fuck.
I press the intercom button. "Sarah. Step into my office, please."
A moment later, Sarah steps inside. But for the very first time, I notice the tremor in her fingers, the nerves practically dripping off her skin as she avoids my gaze.
Has she been this exact way all these months? Have I been so distracted by Viktor that I missed the signs of a traitor sitting ten feet away from me?
I let out a long sigh. "Sit down, Sarah."
She slides into the chair opposite me, bending her notebook in half. I throw the printed hard copies of the reports she generated onto the table. Then, I turn my laptop screen around so she can see the unedited numbers.
Sarah pales. The color completely drains from her face, leaving her looking like a ghost.
"Valentina, I—I don't know what this is," she stammers. "I would never—"
"Don't lie to me," I cut her off. "You did this. Why?"
I pay her handsomely, just like I do all my employees. I never saw a point in being greedy when money rains on me like a faucet. So why the fuck did she steal from me? If she asked for a raise, I would have given it to her in a heartbeat. And she knows that.
Sarah bursts into frantic, hyperventilating tears.
"Noah blackmailed me!" she cries out, burying her face in her hands. "He found out things... and then he said he'd hurt my family, Valentina! He said he'd kill my mother if I didn't route the funds! I didn't have a choice, I swear to God I didn't have a choice!"
Noah. That absolute fucking psycho.
The old Valentina would have had security drag her out of the building in handcuffs within three seconds. But this new version of me, the one who has been softened by Viktor, feels a strange tolerance. I actually feel a pang of pity for her.
I turn my chair around for a brief second, reaching for my desk phone to page my lawyer. He knows exactly what to do to handle this quietly.
But in that one split second, I realize I made a mistake.
A click echoes through the air. Sarah has pulled the compact handgun I keep hidden in my third drawer for emergencies, and she presses the muzzle directly against my waist.
"I'm so sorry, Valentina," she sobs, her voice completely hysterical.
My heart plummets through the floor. No. God, please no. Do not do this to me. Do not take me away from this life right when I finally got my happy ending.
Through the clear glass wall of my office, I see Viktor bolting up from his desk as he locks onto the weapon in Sarah's hand. His face is terrifyingly pale.
I pray to whatever god is listening. Not in front of Viktor. Please, don't let him watch me die. I know what it will do to his soul if he fails to protect me.
"Viktor, stay back!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "Don't come any closer! Stay exactly where you are!"
Sarah is shaking, her grip on the gun unstable. "I'm sorry, I have to... I have to do it, Valentina, or he'll kill them..."
"No, you don't," I plead, but the barrel only pushes deeper into my side. "We can forget this ever happened. I swear to you. You just get fired, I'll give you a good recommendation so you can leave the city, and I will deal with Noah myself. Just put the gun down."
She shakes her head frantically. "No, no, no... he'll know. If I stop, he'll kill my family. He told me he would!"
"Sarah, stop it!" I shout.
The door explodes inward as Viktor barges in, the security team hot on his heels.
"Get the fuck back!" Sarah screams. She whips the gun away from my waist and presses it against the side of my head instead. "Don't come any closer! I’ll pull the trigger!"
Viktor’s boots skid slightly as he halts. I have never seen him look like this. He is losing his absolute mind.
I need to talk sense into her. "I will deal with Noah myself. I can protect your family, Sarah. He won't be able to touch them, I swear to you."
"You don't understand!" she wails, pressing the gun so harshly to my head it feels like it’s going to embed in my skull. "I already tried! I went to the police weeks ago, and they told me I have no proof! They said there was nothing they could do! Noah knows everything. If he hears I outed him to you, he’ll have my mother killed in minutes. There’s nothing I can do! I’d rather go to jail myself than let them die! "
The pieces finally click together in my mind.
The box. The box with the gun—the one we could never trace back to a sender. It was because the person who organized it being sent to Noah was Sarah. She had organized it for Noah, and she had organized it perfectly.
Sarah’s eyes go completely vacant. She's going to do it.
I can fucking feel it.
Oh good god.
In a fraction of a millisecond, Viktor lunges across the space with a roar. He throws himself directly over me, using his own body as a human shield.
BANG.
Viktor’s weight crashes down on top of me, knocking the wind completely out of my lungs. The bullet tears straight into his shoulder. He lets out a choked groan against the crook of my neck.
"Viktor!" I shriek.
Before Sarah can empty the bullets, the security team rushes into the room. They tackle Sarah to the ground, restraining her as she screams and cries on the floor.
But I don't see any of it. My entire world has shrunk to the bleeding man collapsed over my lap.
"No, no, no, God, please, Viktor! Help me! Someone help him!" I sob.
Viktor slowly raises his uninjured arm, his fingers tangling into my hair, looking up at me as if I am the only thing left in his universe.
"It's been... my pleasure," he rasps. "And my greatest... honor, Valentina."
I slap his cheek gently. "Don't you dare say that! This isn't goodbye."
His fingers tighten weakly in my hair, pulling a few dark strands down toward his face. He presses them against his nose, inhaling the scent of me like he’s doing it for the last time.
"Ma'am, an ambulance is on the way!" one of the security guards shouts, rushing forward.
Two other guards drop to their knees beside us, putting pressure over Viktor's bleeding shoulder.
Viktor’s grip on my hair slips away.
"Viktor! Open your eyes!"
A scream of absolute madness rips from my throat—it feels like my voice box is literally going to pop out. I grab his face with both of my hands, my palms slick with his blood.
God, the regrets. There are so many things I wish I had done. So many arrogant, prideful words I wish I could take back. So many truths I wish I had the guts to have said.
I bury my face against his ear. "I love you!" I confess. "I love you so much, Viktor! And I said it first! I said it first, so you can't just leave! You can't not say it back to me! Come on, please!"
But he doesn’t open his eyes or say it back to me.
And I’m scared he never will.