Chapter 4 - Vera
It had been four days.
Four days since Nico had walked into a church and destroyed my wedding.
Four days since he had carried me out of a life I had never wanted but had convinced myself I needed to settle for because of Papa’s threats.
Four days since I had arrived at his house.
And four days since he had practically left me here and vanished.
I had seen him exactly twice.
The first time had been the morning after the entire drama had gone down. The second had been yesterday evening. Neither encounter had lasted more than thirty seconds. He had looked at me, and I had looked at him, and then he had walked away.
No conversation. No questions. No threats. Nothing.
Just silence. Cold, deliberate silence.
I stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows of the guest bedroom and stared out at the beautiful gardens before me.
Right outside was Miami, where thousands of people had absolutely no idea that Vera Stavros had vanished from her own wedding four days ago.
The media had probably had a field day, and I’m certain Adrian was furious.
Ava would be worried sick since I never did anything without telling her or at least consulting with her.
My father was probably losing his mind. That last thought made my stomach tighten. Because my father wasn’t the kind of man who simply accepted losing. Manny Stavros believed everything belonged to him.
Money. People. Loyalty. Control. Especially control.
And I had humiliated him. Publicly.
The fact that it wasn’t intentional wouldn’t matter. The fact that I hadn’t actually chosen any of this wouldn’t matter either. All he would see was failure. And failure always came with consequences. My fingers tightened around the glass of water in my hand.
Nico didn’t know.
That was the problem.
He didn’t know anything. He thought I had betrayed him, and I had cheated on him.
He thought I had chosen Adrian over him.
He thought I had thrown the best months of my life with him because I suddenly got bored.
And because he believed all of that, he had no idea what kind of danger he had just placed himself in.
I closed my eyes briefly. The memory came back instantly.
My father’s study, his cold voice echoing through the walls of the whitewashed space.
I had been terrified, definitely not having expected him home from his work trip.
He had to cut it short because he had found out about Nico and me, and Nico, unlike me, knew who Nico was.
Nico had never told me about his bratva links, but my father knew exactly what the Romanov name meant.
“You will leave him.”
“I won’t.”
“You will.”
“No.”
A smile. The kind that never reached his eyes.
“If you don’t, Vera, I will have him killed. I don’t want to see you near Nico Romanov ever again.”
My grip tightened. Even now, remembering those words made me feel sick.
At the time, I had thought he was bluffing, but then he started naming details.
He knew where Nico lived and worked and what routes he used.
He knew Nico’s brothers and his associates and the names of people who could make accidents happen.
The names of people willing to pull triggers.
That had been the moment I understood.
My father wasn’t threatening. He was informing. And he had the kind of connections to make anything happen. Now, Nico had kidnapped me from my wedding. If Papa had been angry before, I couldn’t imagine what he felt now.
The bedroom door opened, and I turned immediately.
For half a second, my heart stopped as I watched Nico standing in the doorway of his room.
The air shifted instantly. It always did when he and I were in the same room.
I hated that it still happened. The six months apart had done nothing to stop this.
Neither had the four days of silence. My body still recognized him before my mind did.
He was beautifully tall with broad shoulders and dark hair, his green eyes always bright.
The black dress shirt he was wearing clung to him like a second skin, with the sleeves rolled to his forearms. He had always looked like danger wrapped in expensive fabric.
The light stubble on his face told me he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, but I didn’t mind.
I knew exactly what it felt like to run my fingers over that face.
I knew the feel of his stubble against my cheek, my chest, my inner thighs.
Stop this, Vera. For fuck’s sake, stop this.
He froze when he saw me, definitely not having expected me in his room.
Something tightened in my chest. God. This was ridiculous.
I was supposed to hate him for kidnapping me, and he was supposed to hate me.
Instead, it felt like standing too close to a fire.
Neither of us spoke, and the silence stretched, heavy and uncomfortable.
I had wandered into his room nearly twenty minutes ago, intending to force a conversation, and now he had caught me sitting on the edge of his bed like an idiot.
Wonderful.
His eyes moved slowly around the room, then back to me.
“What are you doing in here?”
The question was calm. I set down the water glass.
“I was waiting for you, actually.
His jaw tightened slightly. “Why? I have nothing to say to you and nothing to talk about. Get out.”
The harshness of his words was biting, but I laughed. A short, disbelieving sound.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“I think you have forgotten, Nico, so let me jog your memory a little bit. You kidnapped me from my wedding four days ago.”
A part of me wanted to thank him for that because at least he had saved me from marrying Adrian Petrov. I had hated the man since the moment I had seen him, but I was not about to tell Nico any of that.
“And?”
I stared at him. “And? That is your response?”
His expression didn’t change, and I suddenly had the urge to throw something at him.
“What happens now?”
Silence. He walked further into the room, removed his watch, and placed it on the dresser.
Every movement looked controlled and measured, as if nothing could touch him.
I remembered when that hadn’t been true.
I remembered a version of Nico who smiled more.
Who laughed more. Who looked at me like I was the best thing he’d ever found. That version felt very far away now.
“What do you mean?” he finally asked, his voice losing the coldness he had perfected so well, just momentarily.
“What happens now?” I repeated.
He loosened the top button of his shirt. “You stay here.”
I blinked. “That’s it?”
“For now.”
“What do you mean for now? What does that entail? What is the timeline for any of this? How long are you planning to keep me here?” I was beginning to lose patience. This was not how I had imagined the conversation going down, but here we were.
His gaze found mine again. Cold and sharp. For a second, he looked almost dangerous.
“You don’t get any details, Vera.”
I folded my arms.
“Have you lost your goddamned mind, Nico? I don’t know what kind of midlife crisis you are going through right now, but I will not sit down and become party to it. I have a whole life outside of this.”
“Of course. I am sure your dad’s business will stop running since you are no longer there to handle things for him.” His tone was purely sarcastic, and that only made me angrier.
“As a matter of fact? It will. I have been managing the company for years now, when Dad was busy trying to be a bratva man, and you know it. I have friends and commitments and places to be. You know damned well I volunteer at shelters and NGOs five days a week. You cannot bring me here and ask me to put a full stop on my life and live on your terms for god knows how long!”
“I get to do exactly that.”
Four days of being treated like a prisoner, and now this.
“You don’t get to do that.”
His eyebrow lifted. “Do what?”
“Act like this.”
A humorless smile appeared. “Like what?”
“Like you’re the only person affected by this, Nico! You cannot go on living your life while I have to be a prisoner in this goddamned house.”
Something flashed behind his eyes, but it was gone instantly. Good. Maybe he wasn’t as detached as he wanted me to believe. I took a step closer.
“Nico, this entire situation is insane, and you know that.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
I took another step forward, and my pulse accelerated.
“You kidnapped me.”
“Correct.”
“You destroyed a wedding.”
“Correct.”
“You probably started a war.”
“Possibly.”
“And your response is what?”
His gaze sharpened. I could practically feel the anger simmering beneath the surface.
“My response is that you’re here with me, just as alone and miserable as you left me six months ago. So forgive me if I don’t give a flying fuck about your company or your NGOs or whatever it is you enjoy doing in your free time.”
I stared at him and then laughed again. This time without humor.
“That’s not an answer, Nico. You don’t get to make decisions like this and not tell me what the plan is moving forward.”
“It’s the only plan you’re getting, my lo—” My gaze widened as I realized he was just about to call me my love, the way he had always called me before. Old habits die hard, I believe. “Please leave, Vera.”
Something snapped in me. Maybe it was exhaustion or fear or the fact that he had just called me his love again after what felt like an eternity without hearing it from him. Maybe it was four days of holding everything inside me, but whatever it was, I was suddenly angry. Really angry.
“You need to let this go, Nico. This is not going to work.” My tone was louder than I had intended it to be, but I no longer cared. He needed to hear this.
The room went still. Dangerously still. I knew immediately I had said the wrong thing, but I continued anyway.
“You need to move on from me. You can’t stay stuck on me after I have explicitly ended things with you, and you can’t go around kidnapping women from their weddings. This is not how life works.”
His expression hardened. “Careful.”
“No.”