Page 49 of Brutal Bratva’s Owned Hostage

“You,” he said, his tone cold. “Because you’re the one thing he cannot afford to lose,” Vale continued, studying my reaction with the same clinical curiosity. “Every operation, every calculation, every reckless decision he’s made in the past few weeks has revolved around keeping you alive. That makes you considerably more valuable to me than any vault or ledger he’s ever protected.”

Fear spiked sharp and immediate through my chest, but some old stubborn refusal I’d carried my entire life made me refuse to simply collapse in front of him.

“You’re delusional if you think I matter that much in whatever larger scheme you’re running.”

“Am I?” He stepped closer instead of reacting to the insult. “Dmitri and his big brothers have survived every threat this city has thrown at the family for years without once making a decision this reckless. Marrying a hostess he’d known for months.”

“I see how little you understand the truth. You’re wrong about all of it,” I said, forcing myself to chuckle.

“Am I? Tell me, Valentina, has he ever married anyone before you, despite the considerable pressure his family has surely applied over the years to secure an advantageous match?” He tilted his head slightly, studying my reaction with unnerving patience. “I’ve watched this family for a decade. I know exactly how Dmitri Golovin operated before you arrived, and I know precisely how differently he’s operating now. The difference is not subtle.”

“That doesn’t make me valuable. It makes me a distraction, according to your own logic.”

“Distractions are valuable, in the right hands. A man distracted makes mistakes he’d never otherwise make. A man in love makes them faster, and more predictably.”

He reached for me then, his hand closing around my wrist, and something in me remembered exactly what it felt like to be grabbed against my will. I remembered exactly what Dmitri had taught me since then about never simply accepting it.

I bit down hard on his hand.

He recoiled with a sharp hiss, genuine irritation flashing across his composed expression for the first time since he’d entered the room.

Then chaos erupted just beyond the door.

Golovin security breached the perimeter from multiple directions at once, gunfire echoing sharp and immediate through the corridor outside, Vale’s own men responding with equal speed, the sound of a violent, close-quarters clash filling the hallway just beyond the safe room’s reinforced walls.

Vale’s attention split between me and the sudden threat closing in around him, and he stepped back toward the door, calculating something quickly behind his composed expression.

“This isn’t over,” he said quietly, pausing at the threshold, his voice carrying absolute certainty.

Then he disappeared into the chaos beyond the door, moving like even his own retreat had been planned well in advance.

Golovin security stormed the room moments later, three men clearing the space with quick, efficient precision before confirming it was clear. Roman appeared behind them almost immediately, his expression carrying the controlled urgency I’d learned to associate with genuinely dangerous nights.

“Val.” He crossed to me quickly, checking me over. “Are you hurt?”

“No. He didn’t hurt me.”

I looked at Roman, the words Vale had left me with settling heavy and cold in my chest.

Dmitri found me minutes later, crossing the corridor at a dead run the moment security confirmed the building secure, his expression carrying a fear I’d never once seen on him before.

“Val.” He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight enough that I felt the frantic, uneven rhythm of his own heartbeat against my chest. “Are you hurt? Tell me the truth.”

“I’m not hurt.”

Dmitri’s jaw tightened, fear still etched across his features. “He got past locks I trusted with your life. That’s not opportunism, Val. That required real, detailed knowledge of this penthouse’s systems, knowledge Varley might have provided before I stopped him.”

“He said he wasn’t here for the empire, or the casino network. He said he was here for me. That I’m the thing you can’t afford to lose, and that makes me more valuable to him than anything else you’ve ever protected.”

Dmitri pulled back just enough to look at my face, something dark and absolute settling behind his eyes, the type of fury I’d seen once before, in the moment right before he’d ended two men’s lives to keep me safe.

“He’s not getting anywhere near you again,” he said, his tone low and certain, the words carrying a weight that left no room for doubt. “Whatever this costs, whatever it takes, I will end this before he gets another chance.”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead, lingering there a moment longer than usual, like he needed the contact as much as I did. That was when I understood with cold clarity that I was no longer simply living inside Dmitri Golovin’s dangerous world.

I had become the center of someone else’s war against it.

And no locked door, however heavily reinforced, was going to be enough to keep that truth from following me.