Most nights, I’m a man awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling, haunted by too many ghosts to count. But last night I didn’t mind losing sleep. I replayed every detail—her coming apart in my arms, her body breaking open for me, the heat of her skin against mine. That sweet little pussy I’m dying to taste more thoroughly, and the sound of her voice when she finally lets go and screams my name.
It took everything in me not to get in the car and drive to her.
A sharp knock at my driver’s side window jolts me from the sound of Valentina’s voice still echoing in my head. Instinct takes over. I snatch the Glock from the console and aim it at the glass. My finger tightens on the trigger, a heartbeat away from firing?—
Until I recognize the face.
Silas.
Unfazed by the barrel pointed between his eyes, he grins like a man who’s never known fear and gestures for me to roll the window down.
“You almost ruined my new hairstyle there, son,” he says, running a hand over his freshly faded sideburns.
The sound of my own pulse is still pounding in my ears, aggravation burning hot under my skin. What if I hadn’t caught myself in time? What if I’d pulled the trigger? How would I live with that?
Maybe he sees the storm on my face because his grin slips away, and his hands sink into his pockets.
“My apologies, Maksim. I should’ve called first.”
I nod once, stiff, lowering the gun but not the guilt coiled in my chest.
“You heading out?” he asks.
Another nod. I force my heart rate steady, but the truth needles at me. There are only a handful of people in this world I give a damn about. Silas is one of them. And yet here I am, realizing just how easily I could’ve taken him out.
“I came by to talk. Maybe get a bite to eat.”
“Get in,” I say, unlocking the passenger door. As he slides in, I make a mental note to call Valentina later.
Having someone in my corner who I trust completely isn’t a luxury. It’s survival.
“Are you armed?” I ask.
“Always.” He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t ask why. Just as I trust him, he trusts me. That’s how we’ve always worked.
I ease into traffic, the city’s glow flashing across the windshield, and even though I already suspect where this is headed, I ask anyway. “What is it you wanted to discuss?”
Silas exhales the kind of sigh that says too much without words. I can feel his stare burning into the side of my face.
“After our talk yesterday before dinner…and what happened later that night?—”
Panic rises in my gut. For a second, I wonder if he saw. If he’d been close enough to catch even a glimpse of what went down in that hallway.
The thought makes my grip tighten on the wheel. I couldn’t care less if anyone came for me—but Valentina? No one gets to see her like that. Sure, we knew the risks. But that moment was ours alone.
Mine.
I wait for him to continue, to see exactly where this is going.
“Is there something going on between you and my niece?”
There it is.
“Maybe you should be more specific.”
“Don’t play dumb, Maksim. Just answer the question.”
His voice shifts from uncle to father figure. I know Valentina is his niece by blood, but in his heart, she’s the daughter he never had.
