Page 39 of Brutal Bratva’s Owned Hostage

Whoever had done this hadn't come for money.

They'd come for a statement, something loud enough and public enough that every politician, executive, and partner who'd witnessed the chaos would carry the memory of it into future dealings with us.

And Val, sitting beside me, trembling in the back of the car, had just become part of that statement whether she wanted any of this violence or not.

I pulled her closer, feeling her finally lean into me.

My phone buzzed against my leg, Roman's name lighting the screen. I answered without letting go of Val.

"Status," I said, low.

"Estate's secured as of ninety seconds ago. Two of theirs down, one of ours wounded, nothing fatal on our side. Whoever ran this pulled back the second they made their point, didn't push for a prolonged engagement."

"Tells me they never intended to actually take the estate."

"Agreed.” He paused before adding, "I'll have full details by morning. Take her home, make her feel safe. And get some rest if you can manage it, boss."

I ended the call and set the phone down, turning my attention fully back to Val.

She’s now in this.

Whatever line had existed before tonight between careful maneuvering and open war, it had just been erased completely.

I intended to make certain Vale understood exactly what that erased line was going to cost him—whatever it took, however long it required to finish what he'd started tonight.

Chapter Seventeen

Valentina

The days after the reception passed in a strange quiet.

The estate stayed under reinforced security, extra men stationed at every entrance, cameras rerouted through systems I didn’t understand but had learned meant something serious was being managed behind the scenes. My own movement narrowed considerably, security shadowing me even for the short walk between rooms in Dmitri’s absence, a level of restriction that made the penthouse feel smaller than it actually was.

Dmitri grew more absent than ever. He disappeared for hours at a stretch, returning with a tightness around his eyes that told me whatever he was handling required all the focus he had left to give. When he was present, something in him had shifted from the protective vigilance I’d gotten used to into something colder and more strategic. It was a version of him I hadn’t seen since the earliest days of knowing him, even before any of the softness had crept in.

I felt the shift without needing him to explain it. Something had changed about whatever war was quietly unfolding beneath the surface of our lives. I understood, without being told, that it had escalated past whatever careful handling had defined the weeks before.

I also knew that prodding him wouldn’t make him explain it all to me like magic. Just that waiting wasn’t enjoyable.

*****

Three days after the reception attack, Dmitri entered the kitchen with an expression that told me he had decided to tell me something.

“The reception wasn’t random,” he said, settling across from me at the kitchen island. “It was orchestrated. A man named Adrian Vale is behind it.”

He mentioned the name in a calm, deliberate manner—and, knowing him, it meant the name carried more threat than he wanted to let on. I caught on anyway.

“Who is he?” I asked, my calm tone matching his.

“A rival. He’s run an operation two territories over for years, circling our family without ever making a direct move until now. The breach in the systems, the raid on the lounge, the reception, all of it traces back to him. He’s escalating pressure deliberately, targeting our visibility and stability rather than trying to bankrupt us outright. The reception was meant to destabilize how people perceive our security, and to test exactly how fast we could respond to a coordinated attack.”

“Why now? What changed?”

“You did, in a sense. Not that it’s your fault,” he added quickly, catching my expression. “But once I married you, once that story spread through every circle that matters in this city, Vale saw an opening. A man distracted by something he cares about is a man who makes mistakes, or at least that’s the theory he seems to be testing.”

“So this is happening because of me.”

“This is happening because Vale is opportunistic and patient, and he’d have found some angle eventually regardless of whether you existed in my life at all. You’re not the cause, Val.”