Chapter 23
DIMITRI: Get back now, we need to have a conversation. We’ll be waiting in your room.
Bea’s hands were shaking as she walked through the compound’s main entrance.
She’d kept her composure in the car, the driver had been one of Dimitri’s men, may she’d smiled and made small talk about the weather like she didn’t have a knot of anxiety twisting in her stomach.
But now, alone in the marble-floored hallway, she could feel the panic starting to claw its way up her throat, they know.
The thought had been circling her mind since she’d left the coffee shop. Maybe one of the guards had seen her leave. Maybe someone had followed her. Maybe Victor had been watching.
They know about Marco, she kept telling herself to calm down and take deep breaths.
She climbed the stairs to the third floor, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Her bedroom door was closed, and she paused outside it, pressing her palm flat against the wood.
Get it together, Bea. You’re not a scared little girl anymore.
She pushed the door open, all three of them were waiting inside.
Dimitri stood by the window, his hands in his pockets, his silver hair catching the late afternoon light.
Killian was leaning against the wall near her bed, arms crossed over his massive chest, his face unreadable.
Nico sat in the armchair by her desk, one leg crossed over the other, his fingers steepled beneath his chin.
They all turned to look at her when she entered. Bea’s stomach dropped. “Hey,” she said, and her voice came out steadier than she felt. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, crossing her arms defensively. “This looks…concerning.”
“It is.” Dimitri said.
Fuck.
Bea’s mind raced through her options. Deny everything? Play dumb? Go on the offensive and accuse them of having her followed?
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So what’s this about?”
Dimitri exchanged a glance with his brothers, then stepped forward. His blue eyes were intense, but there was something softer in them, something that made Bea’s chest tighten.
“We need to talk to you about something,” he said. “The three of us have been discussing it, and we’re in agreement.”
Bea’s pulse spiked. “Agreement about what?”
“About you,” Killian said, his deep voice rumbling through the room. “About us.”
Bea swallowed hard. “I don’t understand.”
Nico uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “We want you to be ours, Bea. Exclusively.”
The words hit her like a punch to the gut. Wait. What?
“Exclusively,” she repeated, her brain struggling to catch up. “You mean-”
“We mean we don’t want to share you with anyone else,” Dimitri said, stepping closer.
“We want you to be with us. All three of us. No one else.”
Bea blinked. “Like…for just sex?”
Killian pushed off the wall and crossed the room in three long strides. He stopped in front of her and reached out, taking her hands in his. His palms were warm and rough, and she could feel the calluses from years of violence.
“Not just for sex,” he said, and there was something raw in his voice, something vulnerable that made her breath catch. “But let us date you? I guess like… boyfriends and girlfriend?”
Bea stared up at him, and despite the tension coiling in her chest, she felt a smile tug at her lips. “Are you confused with your own answer, big guy?”
Killian’s face flushed slightly, and he let out a frustrated huff. “I’m trying here, Bea. This is new for me. For all of us.”
Dimitri shook his head and stepped up beside Killian clapping him on his back a couple of times. His expression somewhere between amused and exasperated. He reached out and cupped Bea’s face in his hands, tilting her head up so she had to meet his eyes.
“This is new to us,” he said quietly. “We know we all want you, more than just for sex. None of us are willing to step back. So, Bea…” His thumbs brushed her cheekbones, and his voice dropped lower, softer. “Will you be our girlfriend?”
Bea’s heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. She looked between the three of them. Dimitri’s steady gaze. Killian’s hopeful intensity. Nico’s quiet focus.
“Are you serious?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Is this a prank?”
“No prank,” Nico said from behind them. He stood and walked over, stopping just to her left. “Also, not saying that we won’t get jealous of each other and act like stupid cavemen. But you’re changing us, Bea. In very good and confusing ways.”
Bea felt something crack open in her chest, something she’d kept locked down for years. She’d spent so long building walls, creating personas, keeping people at arm’s length. And here were three of the most dangerous men in Chicago, standing in her bedroom, asking her to let them in.
“You’re really asking me to be your girlfriend,” she said, and it wasn’t a question. It was her trying to make sense of the impossible.
“Yes,” Dimitri said firmly. His hands were still cradling her face, and his blue eyes searched hers. “What do you say, sweetheart?”
Bea looked at him, really looked at him. At the man who’d held her hand in the back of a car while she cried. At the man who’d marked her skin like a claim and then held her afterward like she was something precious.
Then she looked at Killian, who’d confessed a three-year obsession and made her feel powerful in her own body. Who’d run her a bath and watched movies with her and offered comfort without expectation.
And finally, she looked at Nico, who’d flipped from submission to dominance but always made sure to call her on her bullshit. Who’d worked late into the night with her, searching for answers, and admitted his jealousy without shame.
They were possessive. Dangerous. Complicated. They were hers.
“Okay,” she said, and her voice was steady now. Clear. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”
Killian let out a breath he’d been holding and pulled her into his arms, lifting her off her feet in a crushing hug. Bea laughed, a real, genuine sound, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Thank fuck,” Killian muttered into her hair. “I was starting to think you’d say no.”
“And miss out on three new boyfriends?” Bea said, pulling back to look at him. “I do need to find a way to break up with my other three boyfriends, and here I was pretty sure Sam was getting ready to propose.” As she let out a wishful sigh.
Nico groaned “keep talking about those fictional men and I will put your mouth to good use.”
Bea snickered, “Don’t threaten me with a good time!”
Dimitri’s hand slid to the back of her neck, and he tugged her gently away from Killian and into his own arms. He kissed her, slow and deep and possessive, and Bea melted into it.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against hers. “You’re ours now,” he murmured. “No take-backs.”
“No take-backs,” Bea agreed, smiling.
Nico stepped closer, and when Dimitri released her, Nico took his place. He didn’t kiss her immediately. Instead, he just looked at her, his dark eyes scanning her face like he was memorizing every detail.
“You know this is going to be a disaster, right?” he said quietly.
“Probably,” Bea said.
“We’re going to fight. We’re going to get jealous. We’re going to make mistakes.”
“I know, none of us are perfect. We all have secrets that will need to come out and I think we should have a long conversation soon and get everything out in the open.”
“I agree, we have a lot of blood on our hands, you know that and you’re still saying yes?”
Bea reached up and cupped his face, her thumb brushing over his cheekbone. “I’m still saying yes.”
Nico’s expression softened, and he leaned down to kiss her. Gentle at first, then deeper. His hands sliding to her waist and pulling her flush against him.
When they finally broke apart, all three brothers were watching her with varying degrees of possessive satisfaction.
“So,” Bea said, trying to catch her breath. “What now?”
“Now,” Dimitri said, his voice dark with promise, “we make sure everyone knows you’re taken.”
Killian grinned. “I like the sound of that.”
Nico’s hand tightened on her waist. “So do I.”
Bea looked between them and felt something settle in her chest, something warm and terrifying and real.
She’d spent so long running from connection, from vulnerability, from the risk of being hurt again. But standing here, surrounded by three men who’d just asked her to be theirs, she realized something:
She didn’t want to run anymore.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Then let’s do this.”
Dimitri smiled, a rare, genuine smile that transformed his entire face. “That’s my girl.”
‘My girl’ The words echoed in Bea’s mind, and for the first time in years, she let herself believe them, she was theirs, and they were hers.
And whatever came next, whatever chaos, whatever jealousy, whatever complications, they’d face it together.
Later that evening, Bea found herself curled up on the massive sectional in the living room.
Wedged between Killian and Nico while Dimitri sat in the armchair across from them, a glass of scotch in his hand, it felt surreal.
The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.
Vibrating with a low-frequency hum that Bea couldn’t help but let her intrusive thoughts win.
She felt the heavy warmth of Killian’s thigh against hers and the restless energy radiating off Nico.
Dimitri, however, was a statue in that armchair.
His eyes cool and calculating as he watched the movie.
Bea shifted, her fingers trailing playfully, then pointedly, up Killian’s inner thigh. He caught her hand, his grip firm. “Bea,” he warned, his voice a low rumble. “Behave.”
She didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned into him, her eyes fixed on Dimitri across the room. “Don’t go all shy on me just because Dad is in the room,” she purred.
The air in the room spiked. Nico choked on a laugh, and Killian’s hand tightened almost painfully. Dimitri’s glass paused halfway to his lips. He lowered it slowly, his gaze snapping to hers with a sharp, dangerous intensity.