Chapter 19 - Nico
I woke before sunrise. For several seconds, I didn’t move or think.
I didn’t even reach for the phone that usually waited on my nightstand.
I didn’t immediately start cataloging problems and planning meetings.
Even after yesterday’s attack, I wasn’t thinking about retaliation or damage control or strategy.
I simply existed.
And for the first time in months, existing didn’t feel like a battle.
Vera was asleep beside me, curled against my side as if she belonged there.
One of her arms was draped across my stomach, and her dark hair spread across the pillow in a curtain of warm coffee.
Her breathing was slow and steady. Real.
She was real.
She was not a memory or an obsession or a dream. She was no longer a woman I was stalking through photographs and surveillance reports. Not a ghost haunting every corner of my life.
She was here. With me.
I lowered my gaze to where her hand rested between us, and then lower. To the place where our child was growing. The thought still felt surreal.
A child. Mine. Ours.
A quiet laugh escaped me. I had spent months convincing myself that Vera Stavros was the greatest mistake of my life.
Now I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
Or our child. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
My fingers slid into her hair gently and carefully, in an effort to remind myself that she was really there.
She made a sleepy sound and pressed closer, and I smiled despite myself.
A genuine smile. The kind that had become increasingly rare.
Then her eyes slowly opened, and for a moment she simply stared at me. Then she smiled, and something in my chest nearly stopped working.
God. I had missed that smile.
“I can feel you watching me while I sleep, Nico. Has no one ever told you that is creepy?” Her voice was rough with sleep.
I snorted and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “I enjoy being creepy when it comes to you.”
She laughed softly, and the sound filled the room. It was warm and comfortable and familiar. For a moment I was transported backward to before everything went wrong. To lazy mornings and coffee cups and stolen kisses. To arguments about music and movies and absolutely nothing.
The ordinary things. The things I’d thought were gone forever.
Vera studied me. “What are you thinking about?”
I hesitated but then decided honesty was probably overdue.
“That somehow, for the first time in a long time, everything feels right again.”
The smile slowly disappeared from her face. Not because she disliked the answer but because she understood it. I tightened my arm around her.
“I thought I’d lost this.” My voice came out quieter than intended. “I thought I lost you forever.”
Her eyes softened. “Nico—”
“I mean it.”
I leaned forward, resting my forehead against hers.
“For months, I couldn’t breathe properly because you weren’t here. It genuinely felt as if a major part of my life had been snatched away from me, and I didn’t know what to do with it. With anything, really.”
A shaky laugh escaped her. “That sounds dramatic.”
“It is dramatic.”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “Well, believe it or not, Vera Stavros, I am apparently a dramatic man.”
She laughed again, and the sound immediately improved my mood. Dangerously so. Because now that I had it back, I wanted to hear it constantly. The realization was mildly alarming. Then again, so was most of my relationship with Vera.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nico.”
I sighed. “You’re annoying.”
She gasped. “Wow. I’m annoying?!”
“You are.”
I looked deeply offended. “Imagine how difficult my life has been dealing with you every day for so long.
She swatted my shoulder, but I caught her wrist instead and pulled her closer. For several precious minutes, nothing else existed.
Not Adrian. Not Manny Stavros. Not explosions. Not attacks. Not betrayal. Not revenge. Just us.
The way it should have been all along. Unfortunately, reality had a habit of showing up eventually. Her fingers traced absent patterns across my chest, and I could sense she was deep in thought.
“Nico, will you do something for me?” she asked, immediately grabbing my attention.
“I don’t want more people getting hurt. Every time you told me about a warehouse attack, and after what happened yesterday, I am already deeply guilty.
It feels as if I have done something wrong, you know?
I hate the fact that all these people are dying because of me. ”
There it was. The smile faded from my face.
I should have known this conversation was coming because I knew Vera too well.
Her heart was soft and kind in ways that made it impossible for her to even hurt a fly.
The fact that men had died in a war that started over her was naturally impossible for her to digest.
She lifted her head, meeting my gaze. Carefully.
“I mean it, Nico.”
I remained silent, and she called out again.
“Nico. Say something.”
“Don’t, Vera.”
Her expression tightened. “Don’t what?”
“Ask me for something I can’t give you. You can ask me anything at all. Anything in the world. But don’t ask me to make promises I know I won’t be able to keep.”
The room grew quieter even though the warmth from earlier remained. But something harder began settling beneath it. Something inevitable.
“I don’t want a war, Nico. Can we not end this?”
I brushed my thumb across her cheek and sighed deeply. I was neither comforting nor dismissive, just honest.
“We already have a war on our hands, my love. We cannot deny it. We can’t close our eyes in front of it, and we cannot ask it to leave our doorstep. After what happened yesterday, the war is inevitable.”
“No, Nico. It doesn’t have to be.” Her voice sharpened. “This doesn’t have to keep escalating.”
I almost laughed, not because the statement was ridiculous but because it was hopeful. And hope had very little place in my world.
“Adrian attacked my home, Vera.” I kept my voice calm. “One of his men put a bullet in your arm and could have killed you. On top of that, they damaged my property, breached my security, and managed to kill a few of my men.”
The memory immediately darkened my mood.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me.”
The defense irritated me instantly. “He brought armed men into my house, and that is enough to start a war, Vera.”
“Nico—” she began speaking, but I cut her off.
My tone hardened. “What exactly do you think happens when bullets start flying?”
She looked away, but I continued.
“Before that, he attacked our warehouses.”
“Because he thought I was being held hostage.”
“Technically, you were.”
She glared at me, but I ignored it.
“Before that, your father threatened me.”
The room fell silent. Neither of us liked discussing Manny Stavros. Mostly because every conversation inevitably ended with me wanting to break something.
Vera sighed. “I know.”
“No.”
I sat up. The movement caused her to do the same.
“I don’t think you do.”
She frowned, and I stared directly at her. “Your father threatened to have me killed and forced you into an engagement.”
Her jaw tightened.
“He did.”
“He tried to decide your future for you.”
“Yes.”
I leaned forward. “Then why are we pretending these people deserve mercy?”
The question landed between us, heavy and uncomfortable. Vera looked away first because she didn’t have an answer. Neither did I. At least not one she’d like.
“I don’t want revenge.” The words came out quietly and I reached for her hand, interlocking our fingers. “This stopped being about revenge a long time ago.”
Her eyes lifted to mine and then she immediately knew. I saw the understanding and realization dawn on her.
“They’re not after me anymore.” I nodded. “They’re after us.”
Neither of us spoke because that was the truth.
The simple, ugly truth. And truths were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore lately.
It didn’t take us long after that to make up and fall out of that conversation because we both knew my mind was made.
I was always open to listening to Vera, but this time she would have to listen to me.
I wasn’t going to back away.
An hour later we were downstairs having breakfast. Vera was picking at fruit while I was reading reports. It wasn’t normal relationship behavior, especially after our fight, but the silence remained comfortable. Until Vera spoke again.
“You’ve already decided.”
I didn’t look up. “Yes.”
A pause. “You aren’t even considering another option.”
“No.”
She sighed, and I continued reading.
“That’s infuriating.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Nico.”
I finally looked up and her expression was frustrated. She looked worried and a little sad, but every time I looked at her, the only thing I was reminded of was how beautiful she was. Which was unfortunate because beautiful women frequently distracted me from important conversations.
“What?” I finally asked.
She stared. “You’re impossible.”
I smiled, and she pointed at me.
“That.”
“What?”
“That smile.”
My smile widened. I laughed and the sound surprised both of us, but mostly me. Vera shook her head.
“I know you don’t enjoy the violence, Nico.”
“Of course I don’t, Vera. But some things are more necessary than others.”
Another sigh escaped her mouth, and her expression turned softer and more vulnerable. “I just got you back. I don’t want to lose you again.”
Every protective instinct I possessed woke up simultaneously, and I moved around the table, pulling her into my lap. I ignored her half-hearted protest in trying to swat me away.
“Nico.”
“Listen carefully.”
She rolled her eyes, which wasn’t encouraging, but I continued.
“I’m not dying.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. I absolutely do.”
She stared and then laughed despite herself.
“Your confidence is unbelievable.”
“It is one of my best qualities.”
“Or one of your worst.”
“Rude.”
A reluctant smile appeared. Success. I wrapped my arms tighter around her and continued to hold her, breathing in her scent.
Memorizing the feeling. Because despite everything I’d told her, I understood her fear.
I shared it. Losing her once had nearly destroyed me, and I wasn’t eager to repeat the experience.
“Now that you are done with breakfast, I am taking you back upstairs so you can rest. Doctor’s orders.”
She didn’t protest as I stood up with her still in my arms and took her directly to my bedroom.
After tucking her in and leaving her there, I made my way downstairs to my office.
My mind was finally back in work mode and I was thinking and calculating several things. I was reconstructing everything.
Adrian wasn’t smart enough to do this himself, which meant Manny had helped him, and that gave me a clear reason to attack both of them. My phone rang, and I looked at the screen. It was Kliment.
I answered immediately.
“Tell me something useful.”
My brother laughed. “Good afternoon to you too.”
“What did you find?”
“We’ve confirmed financial transfers.”
My attention sharpened instantly. “From?”
“Adrian to Manny. It seems as if these two started doing business together right about the time Vera’s engagement to Adrian was announced, which only means that Manny was using Vera as a pawn in his game to get allies, business, and money.”
Interesting. Very interesting. And certainly something Manny Stavros was capable of.
I thanked Kliment and ended the call shortly afterward.
Then stood there for several long moments.
The path ahead was becoming clearer. Not completely, but just enough to act and move without it looking like an unplanned reaction.
A slow smile appeared on my face.
For weeks I’d been responding by countering attacks, containing damage and defending. I was finished with that. They had mistaken my restraint for weakness, which was going to be fatal. I picked up my phone again and scrolled through several contacts. Then stopped.
Viktor.
I pressed call and he answered immediately. “Boss.”
His voice was calm.
“I want Petrov and Stavros. Get their locations. You know exactly what we need to do.”
“On it.”
I ended the call and looked ahead, my mind made up.
Behind me, somewhere inside this house, Vera was safe, and for the first time in months, she knew the truth.
For the first time in months, we were finally on the same side and for the first time since all of this began, I was no longer fighting for revenge.
I was fighting for my family and that changed everything.
Revenge could be negotiated, forgiven, or abandoned, but family could not. I looked out across the darkened gardens one last time and then turned away from the window. My decision was made.
War wasn’t coming. War had already arrived. And this time, I intended to finish it.