We stay in the cooling water until it's uncomfortable, then I carry her to bed. Don't bother with clothes. Just pull her against me under the sheets and hold on.
"Sleep," I murmur into her hair.
"You too."
I try. But hours later, she's finally asleep, and I'm staring at the ceiling, mind churning through problems I'm deliberately ignoring.
Mikhail's latest report sits unread on my phone. Patrick O'Rourke has been quiet lately, no activity, no movement, just silence where there should be noise.
That’s unusual about the bastard.
I should investigate. Should find out why.
Not just that.
Since I’ve claimed Valerie as mine, I should dig deeper into whoever's running her, force her to confess everything, and eliminate threats before they materialize.
Instead, I close my eyes because I want her to come to me herself.
Chapter fifteen
Valerie
As I get ready for bed, the burner phone vibrates, and it's a twenty-three-second video of Ethan. Tied to a chair in that same basement. Two men holding him while a third takes a baseball bat to his ribs. The crack of bones breaking. His screams. Blood streaming from his nose, his mouth, his ears.
And Patrick's voice in the background, calm and clinical: "You have seventy-two hours to give me Lev Volkov's itinerary and full schedule, or your brother will die screaming, and his blood will be on your hands."
The phone vibrates again, and I pick it up with trembling hands.
Tick tock, Valerie.
Your brother is running out of time.
72 hours. Don't make me send you pieces.
I stare at the phone until my vision blurs.
Ethan or Lev. My brother or the man I'm falling for. My blood family or the family I've chosen.
There's no right answer. No solution where everyone lives.
I have to choose.
The thought makes me want to vomit.
I can't sleep. I lie in bed staring at the ceiling, my mind churning through scenarios that all end in blood.
Send Patrick the information: Lev dies. Probably Mila too. I live with that guilt forever.
Don't send it: Ethan dies. Screaming. In pieces. And I live with that guilt forever.
Tell Lev the truth: He kills me. Maybe kills my family too for good measure. Problem solved, no guilt required because I'll be dead.
Run: Patrick finds me. Kills everyone I love. I end up dead anyway.
There's no way out.
At midnight, I give up on sleep. Slip out of my room in pajamas and bare feet, needing to move, needing to do something other than lie there spiraling.
