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“Fuck, kisa?—”
An alert goes off on his phone.
“What now?”
“Your other gift has arrived.” He kisses me. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”
I’m bewildered. What can possibly be more important than this conversation? We’re talking about our lives—our future together. A family.
“Come.” He lifts me from his lap, then takes my hand and leads us to the front door. We step through, standing on the covered porch. The blacked out SUV that’s approaching has already passed through security at the gate. It parks in front of us.
The doors open and Sophia and Ginevra climb out. Why are my sisters visiting me today? I glance up at Dimitri, but his rigid expression gives away no clues.
“Dima—” I follow his gaze back to the vehicle just as a petite form emerges. Her long, wavy hair is so familiar. But it’s when she lifts her turbulent grey eyes that my chest clenches and my stomach dips. “Ilaria?”
She nods. Tears spill down her sunken cheeks.
I rush to her, wrapping my arms around her thin frame. She hugs me so tightly I can’t draw a single breath. Tears of joy and relief spring to my eyes. I’ve worried about her for years and fully expected to never see her again. This is a miracle. A Christmas miracle.
Drawing back, I ask her, “How? How is this possible?”
Sophia answers, a haunted expression crosses her features. “Dimitri’s men found and rescued her. Roman and I have taken her in. She’s under our protection now. No one can touch her ever again.”
My gaze darts to Dimitri and my pulse stutters. This man continues to surprise me in the best of ways. He not only remembered our conversation about why I wanted out of this world, and my anguish over what happened to Ilaria, but he found her.
He did this for me—for both me and her.
In that moment, the remaining walls around my heart shatter, crumbling to dust. I feel light and floaty, unanchored. I’m in love.
In love with Dimitri Kozlov.
CHAPTER 35
Arianna
The week between Christmas and New Years was a flurry of activity at Leonidas. Between my work, and Dimitri making sure his clubs were set to throw lavish New Year’s Eve parties, we rarely saw each other. Maks drove me wherever I needed to go early each morning, and Dimitri wasn’t home until well after midnight.
I’m honestly looking forward to this event’s conclusion. Especially after I found out that since I’m working at Leonidas that night, instead of attending as a guest, I can’t bring a plus one. It’s not a social affair for the event planners and staff—it’s work. And my boss’s boss is a hard ass about it.
Thankfully, Roman agreed to bring Dimitri to the club on New Year’s Eve as his guest. I’ll be on call for the duration of the event, but I want to kiss my husband at midnight. Is that too much to ask?
New Year’s Eve day I spend at the spa with Sophia, where we’re massaged, scrubbed, and pampered until our muscles are relaxed and our skin glows. After this we’ll move on to the salon for hair, nails, and finally makeup. Tonight we’ll both be at Leonidas, along with the club’s exclusive members, dressed to the nines.
“How is Ilaria doing?” I ask while lounging in the sauna. “She seemed… anxious the other day.”
“You would be too if you’d recently been rescued from a sex trafficking ring. You have to remember that’s the life she’s known since she was sixteen. It’s going to take a while for her to adjust to any sense of normalcy, safety, and for her to find herself again after such an ordeal.”
Six years. She went through six years of hell. I’m impressed that she’s as functional and capable as she is after all of that. Ilaria’s in good hands with Sophia and Roman. I have no doubt they’ll get her back on her feet. She’ll be thriving in no time.
“Does her father know she’s staying with you two?”
“That piece of shit?” Sophia angrily crosses her arms. “I don’t know and I don’t care either. He sold her and he’s going to pay for that atrocity. Ilaria still hasn’t told me her whole story, but my intuition tells me that a lot of what she’s not saying has to do with her father. We’ll deal with him once we know how long to make him suffer for what he put his daughter through.”
I shake my head and smile. “You sound like a badass mafia queen.”
“That’s because I am a badass mafia queen—sort of. Roman has enough shady underworld connections that I feel like we can destroy pretty much anyone we want. Even Papa would back us on this one. If we don’t want to get our hands dirty, there’s always Blake Baron, he’ll get it done.”
I hum in agreement. “You sound happy,” I note.
