By the time we reach the safe house, my chest is tight, my hands cold, and Dimitri hasn’t relaxed once. Not even in the jet. Not even for a second. Sylvester moves around the space like he already owns it, setting up screens and encrypted lines, while a group of unfamiliar men—Lukin’s Zurich unit—stand waiting, all hard eyes and harder jaws.
It should terrify me.
But instead, I feel…steady.
Focused.
Because somewhere in this perfect glass city, my mother is being held like a pawn on someone’s chessboard.
Because the same man who tried to destroy our lives is sitting across the street in a tower of money with the audacity to breathe.
Because Dimitri is wound so tight he might snap.
I walk to the large window, drawn to the view. The Deveraux banking headquarters rises across from us—sleek, silver, untouchable. Except it is touchable, because Dimitri is here, and Dimitri doesn’t miss.
He steps beside me without a sound.
The tension coming off him is a living thing.
His reflection in the glass looks carved from ice.
“Is she there?” I ask quietly. “My mother?”
He doesn’t look away from the city. “We’ll find out in the morning.”
My throat tightens. My heartbeat stutters.
“Dimitri…if something happens to her—”
“It won’t.”
His voice is final. Absolute. The kind of promise men don’t make unless they intend to burn the world to keep it.
I swallow.
The city lights blink on the glass as I watch my own reflection tremble.
Dimitri finally turns to look at me.
His eyes are softer than his tone. A contrast I still don’t understand but lean toward anyway.
“We’re taking her back,” he says. “And when we do, Deveraux is finished. Completely.”
The words send a shiver down my spine. Not just fear. Not just fury. Something deeper. Something that makes me step closer until my shoulder brushes his.
The men behind us speak in clipped Russian. Screens beep. Sylvester curses under his breath. Zurich hums like an elegant trap.
And beside me, Dimitri stands like a weapon carved for a single purpose.
I shouldn’t feel safer because of him.
I shouldn’t feel anything at all.
But I do.
“You should get some sleep,” he says quietly. “We’ll have a long day tomorrow.”
I shake my head instantly. “No. No sleep.”
