First, I hear Aly’s voice, it’s thin and unsteady. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you down there. I shouldn’t have let you see it.”
There’s a pause, then the soft rustle of movement. When Devin speaks, it’s quieter than I’ve ever heard her; no sharpness, no joking.
“Aly,” she says gently, “you didn’t do anything wrong.Hedidn’t do anything wrong.”
“You were shaking,” Aly presses. “You were crying. I—God, Dev, I don’t even know if that helped or if it just made everything worse.”
There is a longer pause.
“I’ve been scared my whole life,” Devin says. “Scared that if I made the wrong move, said the wrong thing, and nobody would have my back. That it would just happen again and again.”
My chest tightens.
“What he did,” Devin continues with a steady voice, “it doesn’t erase what happened. It doesn’t fix everything, but it’s the first time someone didn’t tell me to just deal with it. The firsttime someone made it clear that what was done to me mattered. It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” she finishes softly.
I close my eyes, one hand grips the edge of the sink and my pulse thudding heavy and loud in my ears. I wait for Aly to respond, braced for anger, for disgust, for that sharp rejection I saw in her eyes downstairs.
She says nothing.
The quiet becomes unbearable. Every second that passes without hearing her voice feels like a verdict being weighed. I find myself counting my breaths, something I have not needed to do in years.
I hear the sound of footsteps approaching.
I straighten instinctively as Nika steps into view. His expression reveals that something is wrong. He doesn’t look at the sink or my hands. His gaze locks on mine, grim and unflinching.
“Boss,” he says quietly. “We’ve got a situation.”
I turn toward him. “Speak.”
“There’s been an accident at the north port,” he says. “Fire. Structural failure. Official story will be electrical.”
“How many?” I ask.
His jaw tightens. “Six confirmed…maybe more. We’re still pulling bodies.”
Bodies.
The word echoes; cold and heavy. It cuts through the fragile tension of the last few minutes like a blade. My mind shifts instantly, gears snapping into place, already mapping routes, enemies, timing.
“What really happened?”
“That’s the problem,” Nika replies. “It wasn’t random. Cameras were disabled before the fire started. This was planned.”
Hinto.
Behind the wall, I hear Aly move. A chair scrapes softly against the floor. My jaw clenches as understanding settles in with brutal clarity. This is him escalating. This is a message, timed perfectly to remind me that while I was distracted, while I was teaching lessons in basements, my territory was burning.
Aly is under my roof.
If he makes me choose…
Which would I choose? The empire I’ve built bigger, stronger, than my uncle ever could have, or the woman I’m starting to suspect claimed me before I claimed her?
“Lock everything down here,” I say, already moving. “No one in or out. Double security on Alyona.”
Nika nods and turns to go.
Chapter 21
