Rafael Cortez is pushing, testing for weaknesses, and it takes every ounce of restraint not to answer with violence loud enough to shake the city.
Instead, I move quietly, purposefully, pulling the strings I’ve been weaving for years. I trust no one completely, but I trust myself to see the threats before they strike.
My Bratva channels tighten around us: more guards, more cameras, shifts rotated so no one grows complacent. My best men stand silent sentry at the apartment, unobtrusive but absolute. No one steps near Eden unless I approve it.
Not even Viktor, who’s been with me since I was barely old enough to shave. If anyone so much as looks at her too long, I notice. I remember. I never forgive.
Eden senses it, even if she doesn’t say it outright. She moves through our home with a kind of cautious grace, her hand drifting absently to her belly, her eyes darting to the shadows as if she feels the world tilting around her.
I want to keep her in sight at all times, want to bar the doors and windows, lock her away where nothing can reach her.
She’s not a captive—she’s my center, the axis around which every decision now spins.
Tonight, she’s curled on the couch, half reading, half dozing, her hair spilling across the pillow. I stand by the window, watching the city’s lights pulse through the glass, phone pressed to my ear. Viktor’s voice crackles over the line, soft but urgent.
“Cortez is moving. Not directly, but he’s closer than before. New faces at the docks. Unfamiliar cars parked far too close for comfort. ”
I run a hand through my hair, jaw tight. “Don’t engage unless you have to. I want information, not bodies. Not yet.”
He grunts acknowledgment and disconnects.
I stand there a while longer, gaze flicking from the darkness outside to Eden’s sleeping form. I think about the things I would do—will do—if anyone tries to hurt her or our child. There is no limit, no line I won’t cross.
My reputation has always been built on ruthlessness, but this is different. This is primal. She’s not just my weakness; she’s the reason I’ll burn down everything that threatens us.
The hours slip by as I check the security feed, scrolling through footage—hallways, elevators, street corners, the underground garage.
I text instructions, shuffle resources, send trusted men to run routes I usually keep for myself. Everything is scrutinized: deliveries, visitors, even the maid is swapped for someone whose entire life I can map out back to the village where her father was born.
That night I find Eden pouring a glass of water. She moves slower now, both hands braced on the counter. When she looks up, there’s a softness in her eyes—a trust I don’t deserve.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asks.
“Not tonight.”
She walks to me, barefoot and flushed from sleep, and rests her head against my chest. My arms go around her, pulling her in, her heartbeat steady beneath my palm. I close my eyes, pressing my lips to her hair.
She whispers, “You’re worried.”
“Always,” I say, because it’s the truth.
She doesn’t press for details. She never does. Instead, she lets me hold her, lets me be weak in ways I never show anyone else.
I feel her belly, the slight swell beneath my hand, and the urge to kill anything that threatens her roars up, hot and violent, barely leashed.
I guide her back to bed, tucking the blankets around her, watching as she settles in. I sit on the edge of the mattress, gaze locked on the shadows that curl along the ceiling.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” I murmur, more vow than comfort.
She touches my face, thumb brushing my jaw. “I know.”
Later, after she drifts off, I return to my silent patrol—checking the doors, the windows, the perimeter. Every detail is a puzzle piece, every anomaly a warning.
Cortez thinks he can scare me. He thinks he can reach what’s mine. He’s wrong.
By dawn, my plans have grown sharper. There are people I need to see, messages I need to send—quiet warnings, subtlemoves that tell my enemies I’m watching, waiting, willing to do anything.
I schedule new deliveries of weapons, reroute cash flow, and double-check every trusted lieutenant’s loyalty. I even contact an old ally in Vienna, just in case we need to vanish on a moment’s notice. Eden and our child come before everything, even this empire I’ve built.
