“I will. I promise.”
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FOUR
DINARA
Three weeksafter I took a bullet for the man I love, I’m starting to feel like myself again.
Well, mostly. There’s still a sharp pull in my side when I move wrong, and my flexibility is shit, but at least I’m not confined to bed anymore. Progress.
I’m sprawled on the couch with Katya, wine in hand, some godawful reality show playing in the background. She’s been coming over almost daily since I got home two weeks ago, and honestly, it’s been nice. After everything we survived together in that warehouse, there’s a connection between us that doesn’t need explaining—trauma bonding at its finest, but also something deeper. The sister I never had.
“Your family left this morning?” Katya asks, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
“Yeah. I had to promise them I’d FaceTime regularly and visit as soon as I’m fully healed.” I smile. “The penthouse feels much quieter without everyone around, especially Kin.”
She laughs. “Did he ever find a Ninja Turtle like he hoped?”
“On their last day, Kirill took him on a ‘mission’ to find one. They stood over a manhole cover for like half an hour while Kin yelled into the sewer. No luck, though.”
“That’s adorable.”
I grin, then shift positions and immediately regret it when my side protests. “Shit. Still sore.”
“Take it easy.”
“I am. Trust me, Kirill won’t let me do anything more strenuous than breathing.” I take a sip of wine. “But I’m glad Pavel finally stopped sizing Kirill up like he was planning his murder. They even went axe-throwing together. Apparently, they bonded over their mutual love of violence.”
Katya grins, and for a moment she looks lighter than I’ve seen her since the warehouse. But then the smile fades and I catch that flicker of something darker underneath.
She’s changed. We all have, but it’s more pronounced with her. She’s no longer the sweet, sheltered girl who played piano and followed every rule her father set. There’s a restlessness to her now, an edge.
Discovering her father was a monster, the years of being used as a pawn, the terror of that warehouse—all of that sits heavy on her soul.
Kirill and his brothers are better at absorbing the darkness, compartmentalizing it into something they can live with. But this is new territory for Katya. She’s angry. Lost. Trying to figure out who she is when everything she thought she knew was a lie.
“And your parents?” Katya asks. “Did they spend time together while your dad was here?”
I sigh. “I’m sure it’s weird, but yeah, they talked. Went for walks together in Central Park. Marina’s still the head of a brutal cartel, and that’s not changing anytime soon. They lead completely different lives. But I think some of the hurts of the past have been healed. As much as they ever can be.”
“Will she come back to visit you?”
“Yeah. Next month. We’ll probably visit her too when I’m up for it.”
Marina didn’t take over New York as she intended.
Revenge wasn’t as sweet as reconnecting with me turned out to be. She made Ruslan and the others pay dearly, but in the end, getting me back mattered more than any of it.
Katya’s quiet for a moment, then nods. “That’s good. You deserve that.”
We lapse into comfortable silence, the TV droning in the background. Kirill’s in the kitchen, and I can hear the sound of pans clanging, the faint scent of garlic and onions filling the apartment.
He’s been cooking every night when he’s not buried in meetings, insisting I need proper meals to heal. It’s sweet, even if his hovering drives me slightly insane. At least I finally got him to stop carrying me from room to room—that ban went into effect three days ago, and he looked so wounded I almost felt guilty.
As if summoned by my thoughts, he appears with the wine bottle, topping off our glasses.
“Is he always like this?” Katya asks, laughing.
