Page 57 of Brutal Bratva’s Owned Hostage

“We go back soon. And when we do, I end this. Completely.” I held her gaze steadily, wanting her to understand exactly what I meant without needing to spell out every uncomfortable detail. “Not another exchange of warnings, not another careful escalation designed to test each other’s limits. An actual conclusion. Vale doesn’t get to keep circling this family indefinitely. He sure as hell doesn’t get to keep using you as leverage.”

She studied me carefully.

“This isn’t recklessness,” she said slowly, clearly working through it. “This is something else.”

“It’s resolution,” I confirmed gently. “I’ve spent months reacting to whatever Vale decided, always one step behind, always cleaning up damage after it had already happened. That ends. I’m done letting him dictate the terms of this.”

“What does that actually look like, practically? What does ‘ending it properly’ mean?”

I considered how much to tell her.

“It means finding him before he finds another opening to exploit. It means removing the threat entirely, rather than simply managing it one incident at a time. I won’t pretend that’s a clean or comfortable process, Val. It isn’t. But it’s the only way out of this that actually ends with you safe permanently, rather than safe until his next calculated move.”

“I understand. I mean, I don’t love it. But I understand.”

“That’s more than I expected, given everything.” I studied her a moment, some quiet gratitude settling into my chest that I hadn’t fully anticipated feeling this morning. “Most people in your position would have every reason to resent me for the world I’ve dragged them into. You keep choosing to stay in it with open eyes instead.”

“I’ve had about two months to adjust to the fact that your world doesn’t operate the way I used to think worlds operated. I’m not going to pretend I love the violence of it. I am going to trust that you know what you’re doing, because you’ve earned that trust every single time it actually mattered.”

I felt the relief of being understood rather than simply tolerated in that moment. The ease of having a partner who could hold both fear and trust simultaneously without either one canceling out the other.

“How much longer, exactly?” she asked. “Before we go back.”

“A few more days. Long enough that Roman and Nikolai can finish tracing Varley’s remaining connections, long enough that we’re not walking back into the same vulnerability we left behind.” I reached up, brushing a strand of hair back from her face. “I want you to have this time, Val. Whatever’s waiting for us back there, I want you to actually rest first, properly, without half your attention still braced for the next threat.”

“And you? Are you resting, or just pretending to while your mind stays back in Vegas the whole time?”

“Both, probably. I’m trying, though. More than I usually let myself try.”

“Right,” she remarked, chuckling.

“It is.” I pulled her closer, resting my forehead against hers, the quiet morning light spilling gold across the kitchen floor around us. “I’m trying to be present here, with you. And the pull away isn’t because I’m not enjoying it, because God knows I am. So much that it could be addictive. You’re all shades of everything sweet, baby. But it’s an old habit, being in surveillance mode. I just can’t rest for long without doing something concerning your safety until this is over, at least. But I’m trying.”

Her expression softened visibly. Then she kissed my jaw.

“I know, I understand,” she said.

We just held each other there, our hearts beating in sync while everything else remained silent around us.

“Thank you,” she added quietly.

“For what?”

“For always telling me the truth, even the uncomfortable parts. I know that being that honest with me about what’s coming doesn’t come easy to you, either. But you choose it anyway. For me.”

“I would choose death for you.”

“Please don’t,” she whispered.

Instead of voicing my negation, I decided to remain silent.

Whatever came next, whatever consequences I intended to finally deliver to a man who’d threatened everything I’d built and everyone I’d sworn to protect, it would come. Not today. But soon.

And it would be complete.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Valentina