"I know."
"But you're staying. We finish this together. And when it's over—" He pulls back enough to look at me. "When it's over, we figure out what the fuck this is."
Hope flickers in my chest for the first time in days. "What do you want it to be?"
"I don't know." Honest answer. "Part of me wants to lock you in this room and never let you leave. Part of me wants to sendyou away so I never have to feel this vulnerable again. And part of me—" His jaw clenches. "Part of me wants to forgive you. And that might be the most terrifying option of all."
I reach up. Cup his face. "I'll earn it. However long it takes. I'll earn your trust again."
"Maybe." He doesn't sound convinced. "Or maybe we just destroy each other completely. Won't know until we try."
He pulls out carefully. Collapses beside me on the bed. Pulls me against his chest like he used to.
And we lie there in the dark, covered in sweat and blood and the wreckage of everything we've done to each other.
"Patrick comes for us soon," Lev says finally. "When he does, I need to know you'll fight beside me. Not run. Not betray me. Fight."
"I will." No hesitation. "Whatever it takes. I'm with you."
"Good." His arms tighten around me. "Because this war just got personal. And we're going to end it together."
I believe him.
Believe that somehow, impossibly, we might survive this.
That maybe there's a version of this story where I get to keep him. Keep Mila. Keep this broken, fucked-up family I've built.
But first, we have to survive Patrick's revenge.
And that might be the hardest battle yet.
Chapter twenty
Lev
Rico Alvarez died screaming.
I made sure of it.
Captured him in the firefight at Patrick's compound, dragged him to the basement of the burning building, and spent seventeen minutes extracting every piece of information his terror-soaked brain could produce before I put a bullet through his skull.
He told me everything. Patrick's safe houses. His supply routes. The names of men still loyal to him. Where he keeps his money.
But not where Patrick himself was hiding.
"He didn't tell me that shit," Rico had gasped through broken teeth and blood. "Too paranoid. Too careful. He just calls when he needs something, and I move."
"When did he last call?"
"This morning. Said to gather everyone at the compound. Said tonight we finish the Volkov problem." A wet laugh that turned into choking. "Guess he knew it was a trap. Guess he sent me to die while he disappeared."
I put him out of his misery, and I felt nothing.
But Patrick escaped. Which means he knows we're onto him. Knows Valerie turned. Knows I'm coming for him with everything I have.
And that makes him exponentially more dangerous because the element of surprise is gone.
A cornered animal fights hardest. A wounded predator becomes reckless and ruthless in equal measure.
