Chapter 15 #5
I didn’t flinch. “I was already in the middle. You just didn’t notice.”
Yuri exhaled a low laugh. “She’s got a point.”
Kellan looked at Rafael. “And you’re okay with this?”
Rafael didn’t take his eyes off me. “No. But I don’t need to be.”
That hit harder than I thought it would.
I looked down, briefly, fingers brushing over my wrist. Faint bruises. Still raw. Still real.
“Whoever is helping Viktor,” I said, quieter now, “isn’t just trying to take you down. They’re trying to bring war between the Bratva and the Italians. You want to pretend I’m still just some outsider, fine. But I heard what I heard. Do what you want with it.”
Silence. It hung thick over the table.
Then Yuri leaned back, finishing his drink in one long sip. “Well,” he said. “Looks like Cartagena just got interesting again.”
The table stayed silent for a moment after Yuri’s comment. I felt the weight of it. The shifting lines in the sand. Alliances forming and cracking beneath the surface, unspoken but understood.
Rafael didn’t say anything, but I could feel the thoughts behind his eyes, sharp and lethal.
Kellan looked like he wanted to speak again, but Nikolai beat him to it. “There’s a gathering,” Nikolai said, his voice measured, cutting through the thick air like steel. “Seven days from now. In Naples. The Italians are calling it a reconciliation banquet .”
My eyes snapped to him. He gave a humorless smile. “Which, translated, means they want to look you in the eye before they decide whether or not to gut you.”
Rafael finally moved—one long exhale through his nose, eyes still fixed ahead.
“What do you think?” Ash asked.
Nikolai shrugged. “I think it’s bait. But it’s bait we can’t afford to ignore. Not after the stunt Viktor pulled. They’ll want to know if we were behind it. If Rafael’s name was on that ambush.”
Yuri clicked his tongue. “And if we don’t show?”
“They take it as guilt. Or disrespect. And either one gets us killed.”
The table went quiet again, and then Rafael turned to me. “You’re coming with me,” he said, tone final. Unbothered. As if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb in the middle of the conversation.
My eyes narrowed. “I don’t remember agreeing to that.”
“You’re not being asked.”
“Of course I’m not.”
He leaned back in his chair. “They already know you exist. You were at the meeting. They saw you. It’s better they see you again—this time on my arm.”
I hated that a part of me shivered at that. That some twisted part of me wasn’t entirely opposed to walking into a den of vipers beside him.
“You think parading me in front of them is going to make you look more powerful?” I asked, tone cool.
“No,” he said simply. “I think it’s going to make you look untouchable.”
That stole the breath from my lungs for a second.
“Besides,” he added, “if they’re watching us like I suspect they are, they’ll already know about you sneaking inside.”
My jaw tightened. “You really want to put me in a room full of men who might’ve been behind the ambush that nearly got you killed?”
“I want them to see that I’m not afraid,” he said. “And I want you there, so you can hear what’s said and what isn’t. You’re good at reading between the lines.”
“And if something goes wrong?”
His gaze didn’t waver. “Then you do what you’ve already proven you can. You survive.”
I looked away, toward Kellan and Ash—who still weren’t saying much, though both looked one breath away from snapping. But this wasn’t their choice.
It wasn’t even mine, not really. Because if I wanted the answers, if I wanted to burn this world down from the inside out— I had to walk deeper into the fire.
“Fine,” I said. “But if I’m dressing up to play pretty next to you, I expect a damn good view.”
That earned a low chuckle from Yuri. Rafael didn’t smile, but his lips twitched just enough to show he’d heard me.
“Careful,” he said, voice low. “They might start to think you like being at my side.”
I picked up my glass and downed what was left. “Then maybe you should be the careful one. I’m not above biting the hand that feeds me.”
He leaned in, elbows on the table, eyes on fire. “Then I’ll make sure to chain the bite.”
And still— still —I didn’t look away.
A few more minutes passed before Rafael stood up, everyone following after him. My legs moved before my mind did. The entire group started filing out of the restaurant, chairs scraping against the tile, voices low, eyes sharp. And I followed.
Rafael’s hand brushed against mine—just a graze—but it sent a flash of heat through my chest. I didn’t look at him.
I didn’t have to. I knew that if I did, I’d see the same thing I always did in those eyes: a storm building, held together by control so tight it made you wonder how it hadn’t exploded already.
Kellan and Ash trailed behind me, their silence louder than words. I didn’t need to turn around to feel it—their stares burning holes through my spine.
The cars were already waiting. Of course they were. Everything about Rafael Romanov was premeditated. Calculated.
I slid into the backseat of the black SUV, letting the tension soak into my bones. Kellan followed. Then Ash. The silence inside was suffocating. It didn’t last.
“You really think this is smart?” Kellan asked, tone clipped, as Ash started the engine.
I didn’t look at him. “Do you think I care what you think is smart?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I turned my head slowly, meeting his eyes. “No. But it’s the only answer you’re getting.”
Ash let out a humorless laugh as he turned onto the road, palms gripping the wheel tighter than necessary. “So it’s true then.”
“Is that a question?” I asked coldly.
“No,” Kellan said. “It’s a confirmation. We know what you did last night, Isa.”
My jaw locked. “Good for you. I didn’t realize I needed to report to you before I let someone screw me.”
“Don’t do that,” Kellan snapped. “Don’t act like this doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, but it’s perfectly fine when you two fuck half the city and bring strangers into the house? Got it.”
“That’s different.”
“Why? Because it’s not Rafael ?”
“Exactly,” Ash muttered. “Because it’s Rafael. Because he’s dangerous.”
“I’m dangerous too,” I hissed. “Or did you forget that?”
“You think we’re mad because you fucked him?” Kellan said, voice low now. “We’re mad because we know you’re not doing this just to use him anymore.”
That hit something. A nerve I didn’t even know was exposed.
My fingers curled on my thigh. “Careful,” I said, voice like glass. “You’re starting to sound like you care about more than just the mission.”
“We do care,” Ash muttered. “That’s the problem.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“We don’t trust him. ” Kellan’s voice hardened. “And the deeper you get, the harder it’s going to be to crawl out. Especially when he wraps his hands around your neck and you start to like it.”
I looked out the window, watching the palm trees blur past in streaks of green and gold. “What makes you think I haven’t already liked it?”
Silence fell in the car. Heavy. Unmovable. I leaned my head back against the seat, closing my eyes for a second. They didn’t understand. They never would.
This wasn’t about sex. Not anymore. This was about fire meeting gasoline. About wanting answers so badly, you let the devil whisper them into your mouth while he bruised your skin.
“You think I’m in danger,” I murmured, mostly to myself. “But you haven’t seen what I’m capable of yet.”
The silence in the car thickened, every second stretching like wire pulled too tight, waiting to snap. The distant sound of the ocean faded behind us as Cartagena blurred by the tinted windows, and I felt Kellan’s stare burn into the side of my face like a blade he hadn’t yet unsheathed.
I kept my gaze locked on the road ahead, jaw clenched, nails digging into the soft leather of the seat beneath me. Ash was the first to speak.
“You really did it,” he muttered in disbelief, low but sharp. “You actually let him fuck you.”
My spine stiffened. “Don’t start again.”
“No,” Kellan cut in, his voice calm in that dangerous way, like the quiet before a hurricane. “Let’s talk about it, since you clearly weren’t planning to elaborate.”
I turned my head just enough to look at him. “And what exactly do you want me to say? You want an apology? A breakdown of positions? Should I ask if you need comfort now that he beat you to it?”
Kellan’s knuckles tightened in his lap. Ash scoffed, leaning back. “You really think this is about jealousy?”
“I think it’s about you two pretending like you get to police what I do with my body,” I snapped, heart thudding. “I don’t ask about your one-night stands. I don’t question your choices. But the second I do something you don’t like—suddenly you’re offended?”
Ash turned his face toward the window, silent.
Kellan’s voice was quieter now, but colder. “It’s not about what you did, Isabella. It’s who you did it with.”
“Rafael Romanov is the reason we’re even this close to the truth. You wanted me close to him. And now that I am, you act like it’s a betrayal?”
“You crossed a line,” Kellan growled.
“I crossed the line the day I agreed to this mission,” I fired back. “And don’t you dare forget that.”
The car fell into a heavy silence after that.
I leaned my head back, breathing hard through my nose, heart pulsing like a drum in my ears.
My eyes flicked down to the bruises peeking beneath the sleeve of a jacket I slung over.
The scent of him still lingered, rich and dangerous, coiled around my skin like a warning I chose not to heed.
But it was already done. I wasn’t just close to the devil anymore. I’d let him brand me.
And I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to pull away… or sink deeper into the flames.