“Yes. It will terrify the region.”
His eyes burned. “And Madeline.”
“She’s going to think you did it to prove a point. For a long time.”
He stared at the dead hologram table like he could see the future laid out on it.
“And between now and that tattoo, you don’t get to feel a fucking thing.”
His head snapped back to me. “What.”
“If we go this route, you play it as business. Cold. Strategic. You don’t look at her like she’s your heart, or Damius will smell it and use her to crush you. Last thing, we need is him assigning her to one of our cousins.”
“She already thinks I switched her off. You want me to prove it.”
“I want you to survive long enough to prove her wrong. There’s a difference.”
“And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to her I loved her.”
49
Vince
I stepped out of the car. Trying not to glare up at the Crow Estate of Villain.
I hated it.
It was polished. Famous. Photographed from the outside like it was a monument to power instead of a cage built from it. The walls owned you in here. They didn’t need chains.
They had lineage.
Nikolai fell into step beside me.
“You’re breathing too fast,” he murmured, low enough that staff wouldn’t hear as we crossed the foyer.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not. But it’s charming you think you can lie to me.”
I didn’t answer. The dynasty wing sat above the war rooms—the part of the building that made sense to me.
War rooms were honest.
Dynasty floors were where men smiled while they tightened a noose.
I’d avoided them for years on purpose. Today, I stepped into the lift willingly.
“You remember what we agreed,” Nik eyes stayed on the numbers ticking upward. “You lead on security and Villain. Ilead on codex and optics. We’re walking in as a pair, not two separate storms.”
“I know the plan.”
“I’m worried about you improvising murder in the middle of it.”
I huffed once. It didn’t pass for a laugh. “If anyone deserves it?—”
“Save the homicidal fantasies for the War Room,” he cut in. “Up here you’re a dynasty heir asking permission. You want Maddy, you play the game.”
The lift opened.
