A humorless laugh slips out of me as I step beside him against the stone ledge. Derek knows the truth behind that “ending.” Knows exactly what Pyotr was, what he did…what he broke.
And he knows I’m not telling him this for sympathy or to squeeze a reaction out of him.
He and I are very much alike. Neither of us wastes emotion on people we don’t claim as ours.
It didn’t matter that I grew up as another member of the family, that I was just a boy with no say in the sins of my father. To him, I was—and will always be—tethered to the man who almost destroyed his entire existence.
And the thing is…I get it.
I spent years resenting him for it, hating the way he looked right through me. But now, when I think of Valentina, of my mother, of Silas, I understand in a way I never thought I would. The world could burn to ash around me, and I wouldn’t blink…as long as the flames never touch the people I love most.
“I don’t regret what I did that night,” he says.
“I know.”
“And if you think I spent a single second wondering about what happened to you, I didn’t.”
I nod once. I believe him.
Derek turns to look at me for the first time, eyes hard. “If you hurt her, if a single tear falls from her eyes, nothing andno onewill stop me from ripping your beating heart from your body. You break hers; I destroy yours.”
The threat hangs there, ugly and simple.
“You tell her last boyfriend the same, or does his last name give him a pass?”
Derek lets out a short, hollow chuckle and draws on his cigar.
“That insignificant bastard is lucky he’s not breathing through a hole in his neck. But I know she doesn’t give a fuck about him…otherwise he’d be rotting underground as we speak.”
I hear the words he’s left unsaid. And my throat squeezes a little tighter.
“I would never hurt Valentina.”
He straightens, and I step up until we’re chest to chest, eyes locked. “That’s my girl,” he growls, nostrils flaring. “You die for her, kill for her.”
“You know I would.”
Derek swallows and glances toward the door. Something in his expression unfurls, just a fraction. “They won’t touch her. Over my cold, dead body.”
“Agreed. So what now?”
Before he can answer, the door creaks and Valentina slips onto the terrace. We both move at once, reflex and ownership colliding, but Derek hesitates, barks a quiet command with his eyes, and lets me reach her first.
She meets my gaze, then her father's. “Papi,” she breathes, touching his cheek.
He nods once and gently takes her hand, leaning in to kiss her temple.
“Thank you,” she whispers, voice trembling as she wipes away a tear.
My hand finds the small of her back, and I close the last inch between us. Derek watches in silence and takes a step back, his eyes saying everything he doesn’t need to. Protect her, or answer to me.
Valentina nuzzles her face against my chest and exhales a raw sound that breaks something tight inside us both, something we didn’t know we needed.
Forty-Three
VALENTINA
REMI: Aunt Leni confirmed there’s no contract. None with your name or AJ’s. Whoever they were, they were rogue.
